


Mafia

by ManicMidnight13



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate universe - Mafia, Blood, Drink Spiking, F/M, Guns, Gunshot Wounds, Implied Sexual Content, Mentioned Monsta X Ensemble, Near Death Experiences, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Panic Attacks, Restraints, Tension, Violence, sort of romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-03-09 12:17:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 35,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13481316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ManicMidnight13/pseuds/ManicMidnight13
Summary: Tradition states that the eldest child of anyone affiliated with the mafia must marry shortly after their 21st birthday. Kim Misook has known this her entire life, and as her 21st birthday approaches she couldn't care less about marriage, let alone even meeting the person her father wants her to marry. She has had the same training as those under her fathers' rule, though she has never been allowed to set foot within the lower ranks. That is, until now. In an effort to prove her father wrong - and avoid an unwanted arranged marriage - she moves into the mafia base where she meets the lower ranks, led by Kris Wu.She soon finds herself in the middle of a rather hostile situation between two of the males, both wanting her attention just as much as the other. This is a problem because her father would never allow her to marry someone unworthy of her attention (well, at least unworthy in his eyes anyway). It also doesn't help that none of the boys know who she is.





	1. Ch1

**Author's Note:**

> Also posted on AFF.

Some would say that having a younger sister is one of the most rewarding things in the world. If you think about it, having a sister at all is considered to be a good thing. For parents, it means that they can spend less on clothing; the idea being that when the older child grows out of their clothes, they can pass them down to their younger sibling - at least, if they’re the same gender of course. Misook highly doubted that a younger brother would come barging into her room at just past three in the afternoon, looking for a skirt she hadn’t seen her sister wear since the day she bought it months ago. 

Misook pulled her hair into a ponytail just as Mijung started sifting through the third drawer, turning her nose up at the mess Mijung was making on her usually pristine bedroom floor. 

“What makes you think _your_ skirt is in _my_ room?” She questioned, watching her sister put her clothes back in the drawers in entirely the wrong order. Why must her sister be so messy?

“You always used to steal my clothes,” Mijung closed the last drawer and went to search Misook’s closet next, “until you grew a butt and a chest.” 

“Is there even the slightest possibility that it could be in the wash?” Suggested Misook. It was as if someone had flicked a switch in her sisters head. She hadn’t thought of that.

“Right, the wash,” she concluded, “any idea of what I could wear instead? I have a date tonight.” 

“Again?” Date number three thousand, seven hundred and forty-eight, Misook thought. “You go through boys like I go through eyeliner.” 

An exasperated sigh, “but this one is really cute! He’s tall, handsome, really intelligent, and I have no doubt that he’s amazing in be-“

“Okay! I don’t need to hear that from my little sister, get out.” Laughing, Mijung made to leave Misook’s room, but not before informing her that their father wanted to see her in his office. 

Mijung closed the door before Misook could ask her what her dad wanted, but past experiences had told her that it was probably something to do with the fact she turned twenty-one in a few weeks time. As the eldest daughter of the mafia boss she was expected to marry soon after her twenty-first birthday, probably to some pompous rich kid with too much money and great relations with the mafia, or the eldest son of one of the other higher-ups within the mafia that would build a stronger empire between the two families. Either way, Misook did not want to marry someone she’d never met, nor someone her father had chosen for her. In some ways, she envied her sister for not having the same path chosen for her. Though only two years apart in age, Misook’s sister was far more open when it came to dating. Misook herself had only ever been on two dates in her life, having absolutely no interest in dating seeing as she was going to be married off to someone when she came of age anyway, whereas her sister had been on countless dates, brought home numerous young men and had many nights in which Misook wished she’d bought noise cancelling headphones. 

Grabbing her phone from the bedside table, Misook slipped her shoes on and made her way down to her father’s home office, located on the second floor, third door on the left. It wasn’t often her father was home, and she’d only ever been into his home office three or four times, so as she knocked on the door and then entered she was pleasantly surprised at how untidy the place was. Considering her father spent most of his time at his main office, she expected his home office to be much tidier. She thought wrong. 

The boss - Kim Minwoo - was sitting behind his desk looking through papers when Misook cleared her throat, alerting him to her presence. Looking up, the boss smiled at his daughter and stood from his seat while gesturing for her to sit down. Misook declined the offer.

“You wanted to speak with me?” Said Misook.

“Correct,” he answered, “in a few weeks you will be celebrating your twenty-first birthday, and you know as well as I do what that entails” 

Oh, right, _that._ “Unfortunately.” She responded dryly. 

“You don’t sound very enthusiastic about it.” He muttered. 

 _“_ Really? What was your first clue?” 

Minwoo clearly wasn’t impressed with his daughters’ response.

“This isn’t something you can just drop out of, Misook. Preparations have already been made.” 

Misook had heard this conversation before. To her, it felt as though her father wanted to remind her of what was to come as if she’d miraculously forget. He’d reminded her on every single birthday, and on the odd occasion had even reminded her when her brother came home after a mission. It was unfair to her that her brother was out there doing what he wanted when he was her older brother. Which made her wonder;

“Why hasn’t Minjae been forced to marry yet? He’s five years older than me, shouldn’t he have been married off to a rich aristocrat by now?” 

“Minjae’s place in the mafia is different to yours,” Minwoo began, “he’s useful.” 

Misook raised an eyebrow, “excuse me?” 

“He’s one of our best operatives, Misook,” he clarified, “he’s an exception.” 

“That’s hardly fair,” growled Misook, “If you haven’t forgotten, the last time Minjae and I sparred I beat him.” She pointed out, “twice.” 

It was true, but Minwoo looked completely taken aback by it. A girl beating a boy at fighting? How scandalous. 

He narrowed his eyes, “you wouldn’t last five minutes in the mafia.” 

Misook’s hands fell to her hips. “Try me.” 

His lips moved, but no words came out as Minwoo stood before his daughter, taking her words in as if she’d just casually announced that she was running for president. Misook knew that this could go either way; he’d flat out deny her and confine her to the house, or, in a strange turn of events, he’d actually listen to her and agree to let her into the ‘real’ mafia. 

Which he did.

“Fine,” he said after a few minutes of silence. “If you can last sixth month or more, I’ll let you marry who you want when you want.” 

She held back a cocky smile. “I won’t just last. I’ll own the place.”


	2. Ch2

Her sister still hadn’t arrived home by the time Misook left the house early the following morning, which wasn’t exactly a huge surprise but did make her wonder what kind of guy her sister had gone on a date with if he wasn’t ‘bring-home’ worthy. Either her sister had gone back to his place and stayed the night because she hadn’t been keeping track of time, or she’d stayed the night because she was almost certain that Misook wouldn’t approve of him. It would not be the first time.

Throwing her duffle bag over her shoulder she left the house, making sure to lock the door behind her. She didn’t expect her dad to be home, nor did she expect her brother to be home either. Her dad spent most of his time in his office on the other side of the city and her brother hadn’t been home in a good few years since he moved into his own apartment. She couldn’t say she missed him. Or his cooking.

 

Around half an hour later she was stood outside a building that reminded her very much of the Anomaly Research Centre from that British science fiction drama she’d watched years ago. The only thing it was missing was a huge sign and - Misook hoped - prehistoric creatures. Although, she’d definitely be the first to leave if one made an appearance. Biting her lip, she surveyed the entrance to the building, looking for anyone that might be a member of the mafia. There didn’t appear to be anyone around at all, mafia member or otherwise, though that was hardly surprising considering it had only just past nine thirty in the morning. She’d never met any of the lower ranks, so she wouldn’t be able to tell who a member of the mafia was just by looking at their face. Her dad had given her clear instructions not to let any of the lower ranks know who she was, and had even devised a cover story for her if they ever asked about her background, though unlikely. The only way she knew how to tell if someone was a member of the mafia was to look for tattoos or brands. All members of the mafia under her dads' reign, both male and female, had a tattoo or brand somewhere on their body that signified where their loyalties lied. If a member was male they would have a brand in the shape of a K on their right wrist - which they usually kept covered under their clothing or a wristband - whereas if a member was female they would have a blue rose tattoo on their left shoulder. Misook had hers done when she was sixteen and her sister had hers done just last year. 

Strolling through the entrance to the building she began to take in her surroundings. The lobby looked almost identical to every other lobby she’d ever seen; she’d describe it as a cross between a hotel reception waiting area and a major corporation ground floor that would more or less be crawling with security. To the left there was a what looked like a small cafe, selling all sorts of pastries and breakfast items that Misook really wanted to visit at some point during her stay. To the right, there was a seating area filled with black leather sofas and armchairs, all of which looked incredibly comfortable, and directly in front of her was what looked to be a reception desk. However, much like outside, there didn’t appear to be anyone around inside either. 

A lone cup of coffee - still steaming as if it had just been made - stood on the lower part of the reception desk, next to a few stacks of papers and a computer that looked like it hadn’t been used in a while. The owner of said coffee must’ve gone for a bathroom break, Misook thought. 

Readjusting the strap of her bag on her shoulder she continued to walk through the lobby. She was so focused on looking around at her surroundings that she didn't notice the person turning the corner in front of her before it was too late. Misook bumped right into the man before she could stop herself, dropping her bag and sending the papers he was carrying flying into the air, scattering like leaves. 

"I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there." The man said, reaching to pick up Misook's bag and hand it back to her before turning his attention to his own papers. "You must be the new girl, my name's Joonmyun, but you can call me Joon if you like.” 

Misook smiled, “Misook. Nice to meet you.” 

She noticed that Joonmyun was dressed like a security guard; black shoes, black jeans and a light blue shirt complete with ‘security’ embodied on the left side. How curious. 

Picking up the last of his papers, Joonmyun laughed, “Huh, just like Minseok.” 

“Excuse me?” 

He shook his head, smiling. “Never mind, I’m talking to myself,” Joonmyun put the papers down on his desk and gestured for her to follow him. “Come on, I’ll show you around.” 

Joonmyun took her to the left of the reception desk and through a wooden door which led to a short flight of stairs. Heading down the stairs, she was brought to the first basement level. On this level was the kitchen, as well as a few offices and a bathroom. There was also a large meeting room at the end of the corridor on the right that was mostly used by higher ranking members to discuss operations. 

Joonmyun took her into the kitchen where he intended to grab a quick drink before showing her the rest of the base. She was not expecting to walk into a room that looked like it had been plucked from a modern style mansion. White and black marble countertops, an island in the middle of the room with several stools around it acting as a breakfast bar, and several fruit bowls filled with apples, oranges and peaches. One thing was for certain, this kitchen was definitely lived in as a couple of cups had been left by the sink ready to be washed, the floor glistened like it had just been mopped (confirmed by the mop and bucket next to the door), and the notice board was filled with leaflets and take away menus, though Misook highly doubted that any of them were actually used.

Misook hadn't noticed the person standing by the fridge until they turned around, eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights with a slice of apple between their lips. _Oh, he really does look like a deer._

"Luhan, you better not be eating my apples." Joonmyun accused, raising an eyebrow.

The male - Luhan - looked rather scandalised at the accusation. Taking a bite out of the apple slice, he chewed and swallowed before answering.

"Relax, these aren't yours, Min said I could have his." He said, finishing off the apple slice before picking up another. "Who's your friend?"

"This is Misook, the new recruit we were told about," Joonmyun mentioned.

It was as if something clicked in Luhan's brain. He quickly finished off the apple and walked over to the duo, bowing to Misook in greeting.

“Luhan. Nice to meet you." He smiled, “what’s your surname?”

“Kim, why?” 

“Huh, just like Minseok.” He pointed out. Joonmyun nodded. 

“Joonmyun said the same thing,” Misook said. “who’s Minseok?”

“A friend of ours,” Joonmyun laughed, “the only member who hasn’t referred to Luhan as a baby deer.” 

Misook nearly jumped out of her skin when Luhan suddenly pulled a gun out of nowhere. Joonmyun, however, didn’t even flinch. This didn’t go unnoticed by Luhan, who threw an amused smirk at her.

"Relax, I just remembered I need to send this down to Chanyeol for a service. The last thing I need is to go out on a job with a gun that doesn't work." 

"Has that ever happened before?" Misook asked curiously, vaguely remembering her father telling her about an incident a couple of years back though she couldn't remember who it had involved. All she knew was it had affected the male’s ability to bend over. Joonmyun shifted uneasily beside her.

Luhan didn't answer. 

"Come on, we've got more places to see." Joonmyun shot Luhan a look before heading out of the room with Misook in tow.

On basement level two, Misook found another bathroom, as well as the armoury and shooting range, and also a gym that was commonly used by the members. Joonmyun said that everyone was friendly when it came to working out, no matter what gender you were so not to be discouraged by several males being in there at once. Misook wasn’t intimidated by that. 

Misook absentmindedly listened to what Joonmyun was saying as he showed her around, somehow managing to take in every bit of important information while memorising the layout of the base in her head. You never know when you might need to make a quick getaway. Basement level two was likely to be the place she’d spend most of her time when she wasn’t interacting with other members or going out on missions, so knowing the layout of the base and how to get to said rooms would be extremely helpful. 

Basement level three was quite different in contrast to the others. To the right was a corridor that led to the dorm rooms that each of the members used whenever they were at the base. She’d learned from Joonmyun on her way down that the majority of the members had separate homes or apartments that they used whenever they weren’t at the base, most of them not too far away from the base itself in case of emergency. Of the twelve members she’d get to know, only four of them lived on site permanently; Joonmyun himself, Luhan, and two others she hadn’t met yet. 

To the left of the stairs was the laundry room which had several washing machines and dryers, some of them already on despite it being early in the morning. 

Continuing on, Misook noticed that most of the doors in the base were electronic, as well as fingerprint operated. Considering the door she went through first after meeting Joonmyun in the lobby had been wooden, she was rather surprised at the futuristic feel of the rest of them. Even the walls were painted in a way that made them look metallic, even though they weren’t. 

The stairs narrowed when they ventured down to the fourth basement level, and here there appeared to be more doors to get through compared to the higher levels. Misook assumed this was because most of the important stuff was kept down here, but it also could’ve been a security measure put in place by her dad. Lots of underground bases usually had a secret escape route that was only used if the base came under fire by the cops or a rival gang, but only a few select members of the mafia knew about it - she guessed the two leaders would be the ones to get everyone out in such a situation. The extra doors would hold off attackers long enough for the escape door to be located. Made sense. 

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, Misook noticed that this level was signposted. To the right were the infirmary and the training room. The infirmary was large enough to hold six sick beds with enough room to move about, as well as numerous medicine cabinets filled with all sorts of medicines, syringes and bandages used to treat anything from a grazed knee to a gunshot wound to a broken bone, though Misook imagined that the majority of injuries received by members of the mafia were probably gunshot wounds. 

To the left was - unsurprisingly - another bathroom, a storage room, and at the end of the corridor was the surveillance room. Joonmyun told her that she’d unlikely ever need to go in there, but it was useful to note that if she ever did, proceed with caution. Misook added the surveillance room to her mental list of rooms she should visit as soon as she’d settled in. 

Reaching the lowest level of the base, Joonmyun showed her to the lounge. The lounge wasn’t the only room on this level, and Misook had noticed the discrete corridor that branched off to the left when they’d passed it. A single electronic door with a thumbprint and retinal scanner next to it told her that it was probably off limits to the majority of the base. 

Just before they reached the double doors that led to the lounge, a tall man with broad shoulders and a mean look on his face appeared from the opposite side. His height, in general, would be intimidating without him looking like he wanted to murder the next person who crossed his path, however his expression softened when he spotted Joonmyun and Misook. 

“What’s with the face?” Joonmyun expressed. 

Coming to a halt in front of each other, Misook gazed up at the man in anticipation of his answer. Instead of giving an answer he merely grunted. Joonmyun decided that he didn't want to talk about it so immediately dropped the subject and turned his attention to introductions. 

"Kris, this is Misook. Misook, this is Kris, he's the highest ranking member here. Don’t be intimidated by his _mean_  look, he’s actually a big softie.” 

Kris shot a glare at Joonmyun but returned his gaze to Misook much faster than she’d anticipated. Misook found it a little unnerving, but she wasn’t about to let a man she’d just met get the better of her. 

“Nice to meet you,” She said, breaking the silence. 

Kris nodded. 

“Oh!” Joonmyun said suddenly, “I’ve just remembered, Baekhyun wanted me to look at something in the lab, Kris could you show her to her room, please?” 

“Sure.”

Joonmyun turned on his heels and bolted off in the opposite direction towards the door with the retinal and thumbprint scanners. As Joonmyun disappeared off through the door, Misook smirked to herself. So that’s who that room belongs to. 

“Follow me,” Kris began walking off in the same direction Joonmyun had, turning at the stairs with Misook following close behind. 

Reaching the dorms, Misook noticed that each of the rooms were labelled with name tags. Misook’s room was also labelled. Her room was right at the end of the corridor, opposite Kris’s room and next to Luhan’s. Walking through the door she threw her bag down onto the double bed and looked around. The bed was against the wall with a bedside table on either side. There was a set of draws and a wardrobe on the left side of the room, and next to the entrance of the room was the entrance to an ensuite bathroom. Despite the lack of windows, the room was well lit with natural daylight bulbs as well as a nightlight in the corner and two lamps that reminded her of her fourteenth birthday party that had gone horribly wrong. Luckily her parents never found out about the broken lamp, but that was probably due to the fact her brother had broken an expensive vase the day before and they were still mad about it. 

Misook was so engrossed in looking around the room that she’d forgotten Kris was standing in the doorway, that is until she turned around and caught him staring at her with his arms crossed. 

“Did you want something?” She quizzed. 

Kris thought about her question for a moment before answering, “If you need anything, I’m either in my room or the lounge. Knock first,” 

And with that he was gone, leaving Misook to her own devices. Sitting down on the bed - which turned out to be ten times comfier than her own back home - she thought about the members she’d met so far. From what she could tell, Joonmyun seemed like a really nice guy; helpful, the kind of guy you could go to for advice. However, she knew not to judge a book by its cover, especially not in the mafia. For all, she knew he could be bipolar, though she highly doubted it. Luhan seemed like a bit of a loose cannon. He really had surprised her when he’d suddenly pulled a gun out of nowhere, but then again he could’ve also forgotten that she was new and not used to his antics. He did seem to really like apples though. 

Now Kris was an enigma to her. He was tall, looked really pissed off when she first met him, and he was the leader so he probably had a lot under his belt. Not to mention a shit tonne of experience working with the mafia. Leaders were usually selected based on their skill, on their wits, and also on their loyalty. Kris seemed like the kind of guy who wouldn’t hesitate to challenge someone’s authority, nor jump into a fight that he was certain he would win. Misook had no doubt about that, even if she had spent a maximum of ten minutes with the guy. Kris was probably one to watch out for, even if Joonmyun had said he was a big softie on the inside. 


	3. Ch3

A few hours later Misook found herself wandering through the base in hopes of feeding her curiosity. The base was massive and it would probably take her a few days to get used to everything, but as she passed through the doors that led up to level two she found herself somehow knowing the way to specific places. Joonmyun had said something about someone having a gun for her in the armoury, so she decided that the armoury would be her first stop. She had no trouble finding it once she reached level two, and when she let herself in using the temporary key card Kris had left outside her door, she found someone practising their aim in the shooting range. 

A male with brightly coloured red hair was firing bullets from a multi-barrelled pistol. He was tall, quite possibly as tall as Kris, and was aiming at a target which already had several bullet holes in it from previous attempts. From the looks of it the male had managed to hit the chest of the human-shaped target three times, though he had missed quite a few as well. 

Misook noticed that he was wearing mufflers, so probably wouldn't be able to hear her if she called out to him, so she decided to grab his attention by tapping him on the shoulder. Probably wasn’t the wisest of ideas, as when she touched him he almost jumped out of his skin, firing the gun upwards and earning a muffled shout from the floor above. Why the shooting range had a wooden ceiling she would never know. 

“Do me a favour and don’t do that again,” he said, flicking on the safety before putting a hand to his heart. 

“Sorry,” Misook mused, “didn’t mean to scare you.” 

“You must be the new girl,” he concluded.

“Misook,”

Putting the gun down, the male took off his ear mufflers and ruffled his hair, “Chanyeol, I’m the weapons expert here, if you want you can call me Yeol.” 

“Nice to meet you,” Misook smiled, “Joonmyun said you have a gun for me?” 

“Ahh! Yes,” Chanyeol turned to a large metal cabinet by the wall and pulled a set of keys out of his pocket. Unlocking the cupboard, Chanyeol pulled out a pistol similar to the one he was using before from the third shelf down and handed it to Misook, “All ready for you, contains six bullets but can hold more.” 

Not much was said between the two of them before Kris turned up, angry expression no longer present and a bottle of water in his left hand. Misook also noticed he’d changed his T-shirt since she’d last seen him. 

“Yeol been showin’ you the ropes?” Kris asked as he approached the duo, taking a swig of his water before pulling his gun out from behind him and handing it to Chanyeol, in a less surprising way than Luhan had.

“Not quite, she almost gave me a heart attack,” Chanyeol explained, “she now has the gun Joon set aside for her,” 

Kris nodded to him. The conversation topic then changed.

“Food’s out. Soo cooked again. Should probably go grab some before Jongdae eats it all.” Kris said, folding his arms.

“Kyungsoo’s in? Thought he was at work today?” Chanyeol answered, looking slightly confused. 

Kris shrugged, apparently just as confused as Chanyeol was. Misook wasn’t sure who Kyungsoo was but she would probably meet him at some point in the following few days. Food sounds good

Chanyeol put the gun he was using back in the cabinet and locked it before following Kris out of the shooting range. Misook followed close behind, comparing their heights while they walked. She concluded that Chanyeol definitely had broader shoulders than Kris despite being the shorter of the two. 

“So,” Kris spoke up as they turned a corner, “What do you think of everyone you’ve met so far?”

“Luhan’s a bit of a loose cannon with guns, Chanyeol is easily spooked and did Joon ever drink his coffee or was that just for show? The uniform looked very convincing, I must say,” Misook answered.

Kris peered at her, “What do you mean ‘just for show’?”

“Coffee on the front desk as I came in, was he actually planning on drinking it or was it just placed there to make it look like someone actually sat there full time and had just gone for a bathroom break?”

“You’re observant.”  
  
“So I’ve been told.”

They turned another corner and Kris took a sip of his water before offering it to Misook; she politely declined. 

As they turned another corner and passed another tall man, Kris stopped in his tracks and pulled Misook to the side. Tension filled the air as Kris doubled back on himself and grabbed the other man by the arm.  
  
“Give her phone back before I _break_ your limbs, Jongin,” he growled.

Misook shuddered at the icy tone, while Chanyeol stood to the side just in case a fight broke out. The man named Jongin however, didn’t seem bothered by it in the slightest. The two males were staring at each other for what seemed like hours before Jongin reached into his pocket and pulled out Misook’s phone, identifiable by the blue and purple phone case. She hadn’t even realised he’d taken it. 

Kris snatched the phone out of Jongin’s hand before gesturing for him to get lost, which he did without hesitation. 

“You might want to avoid him, he’s an ass,” Kris warned, turning to continue in the direction they had been walking before the interruption. 

“Seems like it.” She responded, “who is he?”

“No one important.” 

“Okay,” _Seems suspicious_.

The trio found the once empty kitchen counters filled with freshly dished out plates of food, all of which smelt delicious. The plates of food had all been placed behind name tags; thirteen to be exact, but five of the plates had already gone. Each plate had a bowl of rice on top of it, but not all of the plates were the same. It was no surprise to Misook that Luhan’s was already gone considering he was in the kitchen when she first met him. She was sure that Joonmyun mentioned something about the kitchen being Luhan’s domain, but she couldn’t quite remember. Misook found her name tag and went to pick up her plate, but as she did so she found a note placed underneath.

_Wasn’t sure what you liked so I gave you a bit of everything. Welcome to the team. - Kyungsoo_

Misook smiled at the note. What a thoughtful guy. 

Sitting down at the breakfast bar with Kris, Misook began to eat. She wasn’t expecting the food to taste like it had been prepared in a five-star restaurant. 

“Do any of you ever eat together?” She questioned, taking another mouthful. 

Kris swallowed, “We don’t. It’s agreed that the person who cooks makes enough for everyone, but we pick and choose when we eat. Depends on who’s around, but Kyungsoo is the favourite cook,” he explained. 

“I can see why,” Misook took another bite, “this is heaven.” 

“So,” Kris began, “any questions?” 

“Just one,” Misook put her chopsticks down, “who’s Minseok? People keep comparing my name to his,” 

“Our eldest, you’ll probably run into him at some point,” 

“Huh,” 

Finishing off her food, Misook put her plate in the sink on top of the two plates already there. The rota on the notice board on the fridge told her that it was Luhan’s turn to do the dishes, which made sense considering there were twelve - now thirteen - of them. She did find it peculiar that only four of them lived in the base full time, but then it also made sense to her that not all of your eggs should be put in one basket. If all of them did live there full time, they were probably more likely to be attacked.  

Kris put his own plate in the sink shortly after and bid Misook goodbye, wandering off out of her sight. Clicking her tongue she decided to head off to her room for the rest of the day. At least until dinner. If dinner was anything like lunch, she couldn’t wait to eat again.


	4. Ch4

Kyungsoo cooked again later that night, but when Misook entered the kitchen she appeared to be the first to get her plate. She’d noticed on the way out earlier that day that breakfast was usually served at eight o’clock in the morning, lunch was usually served between twelve and one o’clock, and dinner was usually served between six and eight o’clock depending on who was cooking. According to Kris, Kyungsoo always served food dead on the hour, so Misook was confused as to why she was the first to get food. She remembered what Kris had said about none of them eating together, but she thought Luhan would’ve beat her to it. 

Taking her plate, she sat down at the breakfast bar once again. Being the only one in the room, she decided to look around, taking in the finer details of the kitchen. The cupboards were labelled, each of them had a sticker on them with a list of its contents. The one nearest the cupboard apparently contained chocolate, as well as herbs and spices. A little bit of a weird combination but who was Misook to judge when her own kitchen cupboards back home weren’t arranged at all. She was pretty sure the large plates and the pasta sauces shared a cupboard. Safe to say she didn’t cook often.

Misook awoke early the next morning and decided to explore some more before the rest of the members were up and about. With everyone still asleep, she felt like she could explore without feeling like her every move was being watched. She was really curious about the surveillance room, so she decided to get dressed and head down there. Just as she reached the bottom of the stairs she noticed that the door to the storage room was slightly ajar. She could hear clattering from inside the room and instantly reached for her gun tucked into the waistband of her jeans. 

There was a male looking through the filing cabinet in the far corner. His short stature told her it wasn’t Kris, nor Chanyeol. Joonmyun’s door had been closed when she got up, so it wasn’t him either. She could see the outline of a gun tucked under the males t-shirt.

She raised her gun, “Don’t move.” She ordered.

The male froze. 

“Turn around,” 

The male complied. He turned with his hands raised. Misook managed to get a good look at him then; short, light brown hair spiked up at the front, thick-rimmed glasses, and an outfit that reminded her of a character from that same British TV show. What was his name again? Connor?

“Oh, hello,” the male said, sounding completely unfazed by her pointing a gun at home, “you must be the new girl,” 

“Correct,” she answered, “who are you? Why are you in here?” 

The male smirked, “I could ask you the same question, sweetheart.” 

The male began to walk towards her, completely ignoring the gun in her hand. Misook stood her ground but was shocked when he suddenly flung his hand up and knock the gun out of her hand, catching it in midair. 

“Hey, give that back,” she growled, reaching for the gun.

The male smirked again and held the gun above his head, just out of her reach. As she jumped for it he placed his free hand on her lower back and pulled her to him, their faces mere centimetres away from each other.

“I don’t think so, sweetheart.”

That’s it. 

Misook decided that if he wanted to play, she would too. She lifted her hands and removed his glasses - which upon closer inspection she discovered were fake - placing them on the desk at the side of her. Misook smiled at him seductively, stroking his cheek with her right hand. 

“Why don’t you give me back my gun and I’ll show you what else I can do with my hands.”

The male didn’t see the slap coming. The noise was immensely satisfying and was enough to make him drop her gun. 

“I don’t play games,” she said, putting her gun back in the waistband of her jeans. 

“I see you’ve met Jongdae.” A voice yawned from the doorway. 

Looking over her shoulder Misook spotted Kris, still dressed in his pyjamas and sporting the most attractive looking bedhead she’d ever seen, leaning against the doorframe. 

“He works here?” she questioned, pointing a finger at the male she now knew the name of.

“He’s the one in charge of security. There’s nothing he can’t fix,” Kris explained, “and if he can’t fix it, it can’t be fixed. I’ll also warn you about hiding electronic devices from him, he likes to tamper with things,”

Jongdae snorted, “Come on, it took you three months to notice I’d changed the background on your phone, I must be good at my job,” 

Misook almost cracked a smile before asking, “What’s he doing in here?”

“He’s usually in here early in the morning, he likes being in the dark. Always lurking,” Kris said.

“Like a sexy vampire?” Jongdae suggested.

“More like a really annoying bat,” 

“Rude,” 

Rolling her eyes, Misook turned to Kris and brought up his sleepy appearance. 

“Why are you up so early?” She queried. 

“I heard you get up.”

“Bit creepy, following a girl around.”

Kris ignored the statement. 

“Anyway, seeing as we’re up why don’t we go and grab breakfast and leave Jongdae to do…whatever he’s doing.” 

“Yeah, Misook, go grab breakfast, Luhan should’ve made it by now.” Jongdae speculated, picking the paper back up and continuing with where he left off. 

Agreeing, Misook bid Jongdae goodbye and followed Kris upstairs. Of all the people she’d met so far, Jongdae was probably the weirdest. Something seemed off about him but she didn’t quite know what. Maybe her mind was playing with her; it was early in the morning after all.

Kris noted her silence as they entered the kitchen.

“Something wrong?” he asked, handing her a plate filled with different fruits. 

“Tell me more about Jongdae,” she answered.

“Of all the people you’ve met thus far, he’s the one you begin asking questions about.” 

“I’m curious,” Misook insisted, “does he always get up at ridiculous times and creep around like he’s doing something he shouldn’t?” 

Sitting down at the breakfast bar, Kris took a bite of fruit before turning to Misook who was leaning against the counter top with her plate in hand. 

“Jongdae is an enigma,” Kris began, “when he first came here he tampered with the locks on our room doors, locked himself in the surveillance room for a few days, and adopted those stupid glasses within a week,” 

Misook laughed, “Really? He doesn’t seem the type,” 

“The only thing you need to know about him, is to never trust a book by its cover, that goes for all of us, don’t be so trusting,” Kris warned.

Misook didn’t need to be told twice. 

Kris finished his breakfast and waved Misook goodbye before presumably heading off in the direction of his room to shower and get ready for the day. Her mind was still on Jongdae as she finished off her breakfast and put her plate in the sink ready to be washed. Misook then left the kitchen, intending to stop by her room to pick up her phone which she’d left in their earlier that morning. 

Her heart almost left her when she walked through the doors leading to the dorm rooms and saw a police officer exiting the second room on the right. She immediately drew her gun knowing full well that a police officer in the base was bad news. When the officer spotted her he immediately froze, staring at her with big, brown, doe-like eyes. 

“Gonna guess you’re the new girl…Misook right?” The officer guessed.

A hint of relief washed over her, but she didn’t drop her gun. _He must work here too._

“Correct. Who are you?” Misook shot back, not lowering her gun.

“I’m Kyungsoo,” he answered quietly, just as Kris appeared from his room.

“Calm down, he’s with us,” The taller mused, placing his large hand on Misook’s gun to lower it.

“Why’s he dressed like a cop?”

“He’s a double agent,” Kris said simply. 

So this was the man responsible for the delicious food last night. Didn’t look like much of an agent but Misook knew looks could be deceiving, and no doubt he was hiding some serious muscles under that uniform. 

“Kris, Joon says there’s trouble upstairs, apparently there’s a guy arguing with Minseok, says someone ordered a taxi to this address but according to Minseok nobody has done and the guy won’t leave.”

“I’ll go check it out.”

Misook flashed Kyungsoo an apologetic smile before chasing after Kris, whom of which had no trouble taking the stairs two at a time and opening locked doors before they’d even reached them properly. 

The two of them heard the man before they saw him when they arrived in the lobby a few minutes later. Minseok was in a heated argument with an angry looking man slightly taller than him throwing all sorts of colourful language around as Joonmyun tried to calm the situation. This obviously wasn’t the first time this guy had turned up here judging by the frustrated look on Joonmyun’s face.

With Misook in tow, Kris stalked over to the trio and let his presence be known by sticking his fingers between his lips and letting out an ear-splitting whistle. The arguing ceased. 

“What’s the problem here and why is there shouting in my lobby at this early hour?” Kris demanded, pulling Joonmyun away from Minseok and the angry man. 

“This jackass is claiming that nobody ordered a cab. Someone ordered a cab to this address and I want to know who it was so I can get my money!” The man barked, eyeing Minseok like a dangerous animal. 

“Nobody ordered a cab to this place, we all drive,” Minseok explained for what sounded like the hundredth time. 

Before the man could reply, Kris grabbed him by his collar and began dragging him towards the door. It was too early in the morning to be dealing with people like him, and to be quite frank he was sick of seeing his face. 

While Kris dealt with the guy, Misook took the opportunity to introduce herself to the member of the team she hadn’t met yet. Turning to Minseok she greeted him.

“Is it always like this around here?” she asked, as she gestured to Kris evicting the man from the building. 

“That guy just doesn’t know when to stop.” Minseok sighed, “Kim Minseok, you must be Misook.”

“Ohh, so you’re the guy with the name everyone’s been saying my name is similar to. Now it makes sense.”

“That would be me.” 

Kris had said that Minseok was the eldest of them all, but he sure didn’t look it. He had the baby face of all baby faces, the most gorgeous eyes Misook had ever seen, and black hair that stopped just above his perfect eyebrows. She reckoned he was roughly around the same height as Jongdae, though looked to be quite a bit stronger. His T-shirt hid nothing. 

“Have you settled in alright?” He asked politely, just as Kris was coming back in from disposing of the man. 

“Yeah thanks, everyone I’ve met so far has been really welcoming,’ Misook smiled, “apart from Jongin,” she paused, ”and Jongdae’s a little weird,”  

Minseok laughed, “Ah, yeah Jongin is a bit of loner, he’s a good operative though. Jongdae is a little strange but you’ll soon get used to him, any problems with him just call me and I’ll put him back in his place,” he yawned, “probably better to call me than Kris, he and Jongdae don’t get along very well, anyway I should probably get back to work before anyone else turns up wanting payment for a cab no one ordered,” 

Misook waved at him as he sauntered off out the front doors and into a car on the opposite side of the street. Kris passed him on his way back in, giving him a nod before joining Misook and Joonmyun in the sitting area. 

“That’s the third time this week the guy has tried to get in,” Kris muttered to himself, rubbing his temple. 

“Who is he?” Asked Misook. 

It was Joonmyun who answered, “Jongdae seems to think it’s someone from a rival gang trying to get in. Most of us don’t keep money on us, so if someone had phoned a cab we’d have to go down and get the money, which involves unlocking doors, so obviously we can’t do that,” he explained, “he always seems to arrive when Minseok is here, oddly enough.” 

“Do you know his name?” 

“Kim something, not too sure,” Kris mumbled, “next time he comes in, detain him and we’ll see if he’s got any tattoos.” 

Misook’s first morning in the mafia base had been rather eventful, and something told her that this was only the calm before the storm. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fact: This fic originally started off as a self-insert fic between me and a (no longer) friend.


	5. Ch5

Chanyeol appeared quite happy to see her in the armoury around lunch time. He’d set up some fresh targets for them both to practice with and was rather impressed when Misook hit her target dead on every single time. It had been a while since she’d fired a gun, but her skill apparently hadn’t deteriorated in the slightest. She wasn’t sure if her sister would fair the same, but then again she hoped her sister never had to use a gun. 

After firing the last bullet in the chamber, Chanyeol removed his ear mufflers and turned to Misook, “You’re pretty good with firearms,” 

Misook removed her own mufflers and put her gun down, “You’re not so bad yourself,” she said, “could work on your nerves though.” 

“You’re never going to let that go, are you?” Chanyeol muttered, earning a laugh from the girl. He’d pretty much accepted that he was going to be mocked for that for the rest of his life. 

Misook went and grabbed a drink from the table in the corner, making sure to pick one up for Chanyeol as she did so. The taller male gladly took it from her and took a huge swig just as someone else entered the shooting range; in a hurry. 

“Yeol, any chance you could fix this?” The male asked frantically, handing it to the taller. 

Misook wasn’t an engineer but even she could see that the weapon was beyond fixable. It was two completely separate pieces. _How the bloody hell do you snap a gun in half?_

“Please tell me you’re joking.” 

“Duh. Sorry, gotta run.” And with that the male left as quickly as he’d come, leaving Misook confused and Chanyeol shaking his head at the destroyed weapon. 

“This is the third gun Baekhyun has broken this month alone, I don’t know how he does it.”

Misook cocked her head, “He’s really that clumsy?” 

Chanyeol snorted, “He once broke a bunch of plates just by walking into the kitchen. Some of the members think he’s cursed,” 

Misook raised her eyebrows, “Yeah I’m struggling to understand how someone can snap a gun in half.” 

“I’ve been wondering that since day one,” Kris said as he entered the room. Misook was beginning to wonder if he were following her around. He always seemed to be there, but before she could ask what he was doing, Chanyeol turned around and picked up a silver pistol. 

“Kris, could you take this to Joon? It’s got someone’s blood on it and we need to know who it belongs to, this type of gun isn’t used by us,” Chanyeol handed the gun to Kris. “Probably has fingerprints on it too,” 

“How can you tell?” Misook questioned, eyeing the gun suspiciously. 

Kris answered her, “We don’t use silver guns, all of our guns are either black or have a gold grip, specially painted by Chanyeol and Tao,” he explained, “they also have a K etched into the grip.” 

“That makes sense,” 

Misook noticed that neither Chanyeol nor Kris had their brands covered. Though only very small, Kris’s brand was slightly different to Chanyeol’s, something that a normal person probably wouldn’t notice in normal situations. Next to the K was a small cross surrounded by a tattooed black circle. Misook knew that this meant he was a leader (the cross) and that he’d been loyal to the mafia since day one (the circle). Chanyeol, on the other hand, had something else that Misook couldn’t clearly see from her position, but to her, it looked like a small smiley face with sunglasses. If she remembered correctly, this usually meant that the person had had ties with the police before joining. If something bad happened involving the police, Chanyeol would be the first person to be suspected of treason, though Misook highly doubted that would happen. 

“Come on, let’s get this to Joon,” Misook followed Kris out of the room without question. 

 

Joonmyun was still at the front desk when they arrived, looking moderately calmer than he had done earlier. Misook almost laughed when she saw him drinking a cup of coffee. Not for show this time. 

“Joon, Yeol wants this looked at,” Kris announced as he handed the gun over to the shorter male. 

Joonmyun smiled, “Yeah, no problem, I’ll do that now,” 

Getting up from his seat, Joonmyun followed Misook and Kris back down the stairs to basement level one before leaving them and heading lower down. Misook and Kris headed off in the direction of the kitchen in hopes that someone had already made lunch. It was already past midday so lunch should’ve been served already, but it was Minseok’s turn to cook so it may have been a little delayed after the incident that morning. 

Despite the confrontation, Minseok had indeed made lunch for them all. Three plates had already been taken; their name tags indicated that Luhan, Tao and Jongin had already grabbed their lunches. Sitting down, Misook took a bite and almost melted into her seat. Though not quite as well presented as Kyungsoo’s, it definitely made up for it with flavour. 

“Is everyone in this base a really good cook?” Misook asked, shovelling the food into her mouth. 

“Not everyone, Kyungsoo and Minseok are the best cooks, some of us don’t cook at all,” Kris mused.

“Could teach my brother a thing or two,” Misook muttered under her breath. Kris either didn’t hear her or completely ignored her. 

 

 

Heading through the door leading down to his lab, Joonmyun examined the gun in his hands. The blood splatter was only small but easy to make out against the silver paintwork. A quick swab would identify whose blood it is.

Just as he entered the code for his lab, something hard struck the back of his head. Joonmyun swayed to the side and landed heavily on his side, dropping the gun in the process before blacking out. 

 

 

There was something therapeutic about tidying books away in alphabetical order, and Baekhyun had enough books to fill a library. After completing a few early morning errands he had returned home to his apartment to tidy up. Rearranging his books seemed like a great idea. 

Just as he was putting the last book away, he heard the automatic window shutters begin to close and the lights suddenly went out, leaving him in complete darkness. Something clearly wasn’t right. 

Reaching for his phone, Baekhyun turned the torch on and looked to the nearest window. The shutters were completely down and the electricity appeared to have tripped. At least, that’s what Baekhyun thought until he heard his front door open and the sound of footsteps creeping in, followed by an eerily familiar voice. 

“Come out and play, Baekhyun.”

Attempting to compose himself Baekhyun frantically searched for his spare gun, only to curse upon realising that the gun he gave to Chanyeol _was_ his spare gun. Hearing the footsteps get closer to the room he was in, Baekhyun made a dash for the other door which led to his bedroom, closing the door as quietly as possible. With no weapon on hand he wouldn’t be able to fight back if they found him, especially if they were armed; which were very likely. 

Seeing no other option, he flung himself into his closet and locked the door. With his phone in hand, he sent a desperate text to everyone he knew in hopes that at least someone would come to his rescue. Cowering in the corner, Baekhyun hesitantly turned off the torch on his phone, plunging himself into darkness, and wondering how his enemies had discovered that he was afraid of the dark. 

 

 

Joonmyun began to regain consciousness, only to find himself sitting on the floor of his lab with his wrists tied to the table leg behind him. To his horror the lab was rapidly filling with water; it looked as though one of the pipes had burst. The freezing water was already waist high. Joonmyun tried to stand but the cable ties wouldn’t budge against the solid wood. This led Joonmyun to panic. No objects were within reach to cut himself free and the water was rising at an alarming rate. 

Trying to calm his breathing he tried to reach for the panic button he had in his back pocket. He wasn’t sure if it would still work underwater but he couldn’t think of anything else, so reaching for it the best he could he pressed it. 

And then he screamed.

 

 

Baekhyun had resorted to hiding behind his large collection of jackets in hopes that if the intruders opened the door they wouldn’t find him, but he could hear their footsteps getting closer and closer and that hope was quickly vanishing. His erratic heartbeat rang in his ears. There was a sudden thump but the footsteps didn’t cease. 

Baekhyun held back a gasp when the footsteps stopped outside the closet door. The sound of the door handle being turned taunted him for what seemed like hours before the door finally swung open. Baekhyun braced himself.

As the jackets were pushed apart Baekhyun had expected to come face to face with the barrel of a gun. However, that was not the case. 

“He’s in here!” Tao called out as Baekhyun almost fainted from shock. 

 

 

 

Kris hadn’t even finished his lunch before he bolted from the kitchen. Misook had to run full speed to keep up with him, and even then she was still at least three steps behind. _Damn him and his long legs._

“Slow down!” Misook called after him. 

“Joon’s in danger,” Kris breathed as he skidded around a corner and all but jumped down the last flight of stairs to the lowest level.

“How do you know?” Misook shouted, narrowly missing being trapped in a closing door. 

Kris didn’t answer her verbally. Instead, he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small, dark blue device that was flashing brightly, as well as vibrating. Misook understood immediately and picked up the pace. 

Misook heard Kris curse as they arrived at the door leading down to Joonmyun’s lab only to find water seeping from beneath it. She was alarmed at how much water covered the floor already. 

“Misook, go and find Jongdae, tell him to shut the water off, he should be in the surveillance room,” Kris ordered while trying to pry the door open. The water had fried the electronics so Kris had to try and open the door manually, which was much easier said than done. 

Misook took off in the direction of the surveillance room while Kris managed to pry the door open just enough for him to squeeze through. Forcibly opening a door that was acting as a dam was extremely difficult, and when he did so water began to flood through. The corridor beyond the door was completely flooded. 

 

Wading through the freezing cold water Kris hurried to the lab. He knew before he’d even reached the door that it was going to be impossible to open it but decided to give it a try anyway. It didn’t budge. Through the glass window in the top half of the door, he could see Joonmyun struggling to keep his head above the water. If he didn’t get in there now, Joonmyun would drown. Seeing no other option than to break the window, Kris reached for the fire extinguisher on the wall and hit the windows weakest point repeatedly. It took a few hits but the glass eventually shattered, allowing Kris to climb through. 

Kris made his way to the hysterical Joonmyun, who by now was neck deep and shaking uncontrollably. 

Realising that Joon couldn't move due to being tied to the table, Kris looked around for anything sharp; knife, scalpel, a pair of scissors, anything he could use to cut his friend free. Spotting a pocket knife by the computer he quickly waded over to it and picked up it. Making his way back to Joonmyun, he knelt down in front of him and took Joon's face in his hands.

"Joon, Joon listen to me, calm down, it's alright, I'm gonna get you out of here, just put your head on my shoulder while I cut you free." 

Through his tears, Joonmyun managed to nod. As Kris leaned over his shoulder he placed his chin on Kris's right shoulder, grateful for the slightest bit of warmth.

It only took a few seconds to cut Joonmyun free, and before Joon realised he was no longer tied down he was lifted out of the water by strong arms. Soaking wet, he shook in the taller's arms, breathing erratic and mind struggling to comprehend the situation as he was carried out through the broken window of his lab door. 

 

 

Misook skidded to a halt in front of the surveillance room door and banged her fist on it repeatedly. She really hoped Jongdae was where Kris said he was otherwise she’d be calling upon deaf ears. 

Jongdae appeared at the door a few seconds later with a can of lemonade in his hand. 

“What’s up?” He questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Joon’s in danger, you need to turn off the water,” she breathed out. 

“Okay, come in,” 

Misook followed Jongdae into the surveillance room where he all but jumped into his office chair and began typing away on his laptop. A program that Misook had never seen before flashed up on the screen, leading Jongdae to type in a series of numbers like he’d done it many times before. Misook found this interesting.

“How do you know what you’re doing?” She asked, sitting down on the table next to him.

He turned to her with a blank expression, “I wrote the code, sweetheart.” 

Hitting the enter key, Jongdae leaned back in his chair, “Alright, the water is off from basement level four, downwards. Want to tell me what happened?” 

“Joon pressed his panic button and when we got to the door leading to his lab water was flooding into the corridor, I’m not sure what’s happened but I guess we’ll find out sooner or later.” 

Jongdae pursed his lips, “If Joon pressed his panic button, that means something serious has happened,” 

“How serious?”

“Panic buttons are only pressed if the pressers life is in danger,” Jongdae said.

Silence ensued as Misook thought about the severity of the situation. Nothing was said between the two until a few minutes later when movement on the video feed of the corridor leading to the infirmary caught Jongdae’s attention. 

“Kris is carrying Joon, that can’t be good,” he said as he hit a key and made the feed full screen. 

Misook was out of the door before Jongdae could say another word.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fact: I wrote the flood scene while on the bus.
> 
> Next update should be on Monday, but maybe sooner.


	6. Ch6

Joonmyun was shaking uncontrollably when Kris put him down on one of the beds in the infirmary. If Kris hadn’t got there when he had, it would’ve been horrifically likely that Joonmyun would have drowned, not something Kris wanted to think about. 

Yixing was both shocked and relieved that he didn’t have to deal with a bullet wound or broken bone for once, however morbid that may sound when Kris came stumbling into the room. Pulling a blanket from the cabinet he handed it to Kris, who proceeded to remove Joonmyun’s wet clothes while Yixing gathered some supplies to clean Joonmyun’s wrist wounds. 

“What happened?” Kris asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” Joonmyun managed to get out, “opened the door to my lab…then darkness…then water,” 

He didn’t manage to get many words out before Misook and Jongdae came running in, concern registering across Misook’s face when she saw the state of Joonmyun. 

“Everything okay?” Jongdae said to nobody in particular. Kris answered his question with a question.

“Can you get the CCTV up from level three down? I need to know who did this,” 

Misook almost jumped at his icy tone. 

Jongdae nodded and wandered out of the room. Kris muttered something inaudible to Joonmyun before following Jongdae at a quicker pace. Misook decided she’d go as well. 

Jongdae all but jumped into his office chair when they reached the surveillance room and quickly brought up the CCTV for levels three, four and five. The video of Joonmyun walking with Kris and Misook came up on screen, and they followed Joonmyun through the sequence up until they parted ways. It was then that the footage went black. There was no video footage for a good fifteen minutes, only sound, and even that was muffled as if someone had thrown a blanket over the camera. Someone had obviously tampered with the footage. 

“Great.” Mumbled Kris. “Just what we need.” 

To be honest he had expected it. Committing a crime and disposing of all evidence that would bust the culprit is something Kris knew all too well, he just never expected it to happen to one of his own, let alone is best friend and colleague. Going after Joonmyun was a petty move. Going after anyone who didn’t have malicious intentions was a petty move. Without CCTV footage it would be harder to find the culprit, but Kris would find out who it was, even if it killed him.

“Is there any way of getting the footage back?” Kris already knew the answer, but he thought he’d ask anyway. 

Jongdae held back a snort, “can pigs fly? I can try and get it back but the chances are slim to none,” 

Evidently, Kris wasn’t happy nor impressed with the response, but he didn’t push the issue further, instead choosing to leave Jongdae to it and return to the infirmary. Silence ensued as Misook was stuck for words watching Jongdae work. His fingers glided over the keyboard with minimal effort, trying to find a way to bring the lost footage back. After a few minutes, he stopped. 

“Yeah, this isn’t coming back,” he concluded. 

“Can you figure anything out from just the sound?” Misook suggested. 

He shook his head, “I doubt it, judging by the sound waves there isn’t much to listen to.” 

“Any idea who might have done this?” 

“Who wiped the footage, or attacked Joon?”

“Both,” she said, “I assume they’re the same person.” 

Jongdae nodded, “Or people. It’s likely that there was more than one.” 

Misook barely knew Joonmyun but it was blatantly obvious to her that he wasn’t a malicious person. At least, not someone who made enemies easily. She didn’t know his background or much about him but she was almost certain that he wasn’t an evil person. Why anyone would want to hurt him was beyond her. 

 

 

 

“Did you check the CCTV, Jongdae?” Joonmyun asked when Misook and Jongdae arrived back in the infirmary sometime later. 

“Yep, nothing. Footage has been wiped.”  

Joonmyun frowned. 

“This isn’t the movies, things like this shouldn’t happen.” Everyone nodded in agreement. 

“Well, unfortunately, it has happened and there isn’t much we can do about it,” Jongdae clicked his tongue. “I’ll go and check the cameras to see if there’s any sign of them being tampered with.” 

Misook’s eyes followed Jongdae as he left the room. 

Jongdae’s presence was replaced with Kyungsoo’s a few moments later, carrying four dress bags and a duffle bag. 

“I know this probably isn’t a good time, but I have the uniforms for tomorrow’s operation,” Kyungsoo set them down on the table and opened one of the dress bags. “They’re all labelled. If you gave me the correct measurements they should fit. I’ll leave you guys to try them on; please inform the others. I have to head back to the station for a couple of hours but I’ll be back later to go over tomorrows operation.” 

Kyungsoo left as quickly as he’d come, leaving the group to rekindle their thoughts. Kris - who hadn’t moved from his Joonmyun’s side since he’d returned from the surveillance room - was the first to venture over to the dress bags. The uniforms matched Kyungsoo’s as expected; navy blue shirts and trousers, black boots, and a belt that held everything from pepper spray to handcuffs. 

Joonmyun began to stand up the second Kris’s back was turned, but it was as if the leader had eyes in the back of his head as this didn’t go unnoticed. 

“Joon, sit down. You’re injured.” 

“I got hit over the head, Kris, my legs are fine. I’m perfectly capable of getting my uniform.” Joonmyun responded, hobbling over to where Kris was stood. The taller scowled at him. 

“As your leader, I don’t want you coming tomor-“

“As your friend, I’m telling you I’m fine.”  

Kris put a hand on Joonmyun’s shoulder, “You aren’t fine. You have a head injury,” 

“Kris, if he says he’s fine, then he’s fine,” Misook chimed in. She’d had enough of the impending argument. 

 

 

Around three hours later, twelve members of the mafia including Misook had put on their uniforms and lined up against the wall outside the lounge as if they were real police officers. Misook’s uniform fit her surprisingly well considering she hadn’t given them her measurements. She assumed that one of them had a sister or female friend that was a similar build to her. 

Kyungsoo was pacing in front of them, examining their uniforms for any issues. If they didn’t fit properly they wouldn’t be at all convincing. Misook couldn't help but eye the boys around her; every single one of them looked the part. 

“Okay, looks like all your uniforms fit correctly, so we can move on to the important stuff,” Kyungsoo took the lead as they marched into the lounge one by one. Once everyone was seated, Kyungsoo continued. 

“There’s only so much information I can give you. The higher-ups have been keeping this secret for quite some time so I dug up what I could. The operation will begin at 6am, so you all need to arrive and blend in no later than 5:30am. I will be there already, make sure you don’t interact with the other officers, as far as they’re aware you’re from a separate station in Seoul. The mission is to get in there and find as many weapons as you can and ‘confiscate’ them. I don’t think I have to tell you not to get caught. See you all tomorrow bright and early, your leader will put you into groups, but that’s all for now.” 

As Kyungsoo left the room, the other members of the mafia stood from their seats and went their separate ways. Baekhyun, Kris, Misook, Joonmyun and Jongdae decided to stay behind to discuss a few things regarding the incident earlier. 

“Would it make sense for us all to stay at yours for the night Baek? Or do you wanna stay in the dorm?” Joonmyun asked as they all gathered at the coffee table. 

“I think I’d rather stay here, I think it’s safer, what with Jongdae’s security system and the armoury being close by,” Baekhyun answered, earning a nod of agreement from the others. 

“Your room is in the same condition you left it so you don’t need to go home for anything. Stay here for the night and then we’ll decide tomorrow if it’s safe for you to go home.” Kris suggested as he shifted in his seat, eyeing Misook. 

“As for the mission tomorrow, Misook you’ll be in a team with Chanyeol and Tao as team Red. Baekhyun, Sehun, and Luhan will make up team Blue. Kyungsoo will lead team Black along with Kai and Minseok. I’ll be leading team Green with Joonmyun and Yixing. Jongdae you’ll be doing your usual thing.” 

“Got it,” Jongdae said as he got up and left. 

Joonmyun made his leave shortly after with Kris following after him. Baekhyun decided to stay behind with Misook and get to know her. 

“So, Misook right? I don’t think we’ve been formally introduced. I’m Baekhyun, it’s nice to meet you.” Baekhyun introduced himself with a smile. 

“Yeah, that’s me.” She responded, returning a smile. “If you don’t mind me asking, can I ask you a few questions regarding Kris?” 

“Depends on the questions, it’s not my business to talk about my colleagues,” Baekhyun answered, raising his eyebrows at her. 

“Nothing really personal but, I’ve noticed he has trouble bending over, is there a reason for that?” 

Baekhyun appeared hesitant to answer as he looked towards the door to make sure nobody was there. “I can’t tell you the details but he was injured during a mission a few years ago.”

“Is that why he always looks so pissed off?” Misook mused. 

“Pretty much. That and other things, but I can’t reveal those to you, you’ll have to ask him about it. Although if I were you I’d stay out of his business.” 

“I feel like he doesn’t trust me.” 

Baekhyun frowned. 

“You’re new here, he’s probably just making sure you aren’t working for the other side.” 

“Mm, I guess, but I’m not and I don’t want him to think that I am. I feel like he’s watching me all the time. It’s creepy.” 

The two of them changed the subject shortly after. Neither of them noticed a shadow moving away from the door. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's almost 1am, I haven't proofread this, I apologise for any mistakes :')


	7. Ch7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have proofread this but it is 2:26am and I may have missed something. Sorry if I have!

5:30am came around fast and before Misook knew it she was on her first mission as a member of the Mafia. Even though she’d grown up as part of it she had never ventured out on a mission with the others; her father had never let her interact with the ‘lower ranks’. 

Seeing everyone dressed in their police uniforms was weird and confusing, but as long as she stuck with Chanyeol and her teammates she would be alright. She was glad that Joonmyun had pointed out who was who because there must’ve been at least fifty officers here, all wearing the same uniform, and all standing around waiting for orders. 

Kyungsoo was speaking with a few officers next to one of the many police vans. He hadn’t spoken to Misook, or any of the other members aside from Minseok and Kai since arriving at the warehouse. It was important that he didn’t interact with them too much. The real police were under the assumption that Misook and co were officers from a different station, and Minseok and Kai were vital to Kyungsoo’s team - at least that’s what he’d told them. 

Kris hadn’t spoken to Misook since yesterday despite being the first to see her that morning. She assumed it was because he was making sure that everyone was ready for the operation, but from the way Kyungsoo explained everything yesterday she didn’t really understand why Kris was leading it when Kyungsoo clearly had a better grasp on the situation in the first place. Then again, Kyungsoo probably didn’t want to break his cover. 

She spotted Kris by the side of the warehouse talking to Joonmyun, who had his arms folded and a stern look on his face as Kris spoke. Misook was too far away to hear what they were saying, but Kris lifting his hand to stroke Joonmyun’s cheek didn’t go unnoticed. 

She turned to Chanyeol who was stood next to her and said, “Does Kris always treat Joonmyun like he’s his girlfriend?” 

Chanyeol looked down at her, and upon being prompted by a nod of the head followed her gaze to the two males. 

“They’re just really close friends,” Chanyeol responded, turning his attention back to whatever he was looking at previously. 

“So I’ve heard,”  

“Why’d you ask?” 

She shrugged, “Just an observation,” 

The conversation ended there as the police began to move in on the warehouse. Kris disappeared off with Joonmyun following close behind, and Misook was left alone with Chanyeol and Tao. Chanyeol led the way into the warehouse. 

 

 

The plan had gone to shit the second the rival gang showed up to get their stuff back. The members of the mafia had scattered, abandoning the teams in which they’d been placed and Misook subsequently found herself behind a stack of crates completely alone while bullets and splinters of wood went flying overhead. She’d lost Chanyeol somewhere in the crossfire and had no idea where Tao had gone, though she was pretty sure he couldn’t have gone that far unless he’d jumped the crates. 

Another bullet hitting the crates opposite had her covering her eyes. The gun in her hand had run out of bullets a few minutes ago and she was completely defenceless unless one of the guys reached her. She squealed as a man dressed in uniform came barrelling over the crate behind her, landing on his side right next to her, looking bewildered. She sighed in relief when she saw it was Jongdae. 

“Need help?” He questioned as he recovered and sent a few shots back. Misook flinched when a bullet skimmed the top of his hair. 

“I’m guessing this is when we pull out?” She responded, tucking her gun into its holster. 

“You’d be correct,” he replied, “there’s a window behind those crates,” he pointed to a large stack about twenty feet away, “we can escape through there, but we’ll have to run like our lives depend on it.” 

Misook didn’t need to be told twice as she scrambled to her feet, and on Jongdae’s signal began sprinting towards the crates. She’d half expected to run into the other members on the way but was surprised when she didn’t. However, she didn’t have time to think about where the others might be and instead leapt onto the crate below the window and all but threw herself out of the opening, landing heavily on her side on the grass below. Jongdae was quick to follow her, but not without being caught in the left bicep by a stray bullet, causing him to fall off the window ledge and almost land on Misook for the second time in less than five minutes. 

Jongdae recovered quicker than Misook expected, ignoring the pain in his arm and pulled Misook along to the waiting getaway van. Kris was already in the van waiting, along with seven others. The only members unaccounted for were Kyungsoo, who was likely to be dealing with the situation with his colleagues, Sehun, who had probably taken up refuge somewhere until the havoc had calmed down, and Baekhyun who she hadn’t seen since the beginning of the operation. 

With the sound of wheels screeching filling the air, Kris made the decision to leave without them. Jongdae’s injury had not gone unnoticed by the rest. 

“Hey, Jongdae, you’re bleeding,” Luhan commented. 

“Really?” Jongdae replied, remaining on the floor of the van, “I hadn’t noticed.” 

“Did you get shot again?” Kris mumbled from the driver's seat. 

“Yep, bicep,”

“Which bicep?” Yixing questioned as he moved to check Jongdae over. 

“The left one,” Jongdae answered, earning a snort from Kris. 

“Again? What is it with you and arm injuries.” 

“Keep driving,” Jongdae said through gritted teeth as Yixing helped him remove his police shirt. Misook aptly looked away. 

Jongdae was immediately sent to the infirmary when they arrived back at the base. Yixing had insisted on him foregoing any more missions for the time being while his arm healed, and if Kris had a problem with it he’d sort it.

 

 

It was late when they arrived back, but Misook couldn’t go to bed without knowing that Sehun and Baekhyun had made it back safely. She’d been trained to work with the ‘every man for himself’ attitude, but here she was sitting in the kitchen with a mug of hot chocolate between her hands in the early hours of the morning waiting for news. 

Kris seemingly ignored her as he entered the room, heading for the fridge. 

“Have Sehun and Baekhyun been in contact?” She questioned, hoping for an answer. She wasn’t expecting to actually get one.

Kris nodded, “They managed to get away in Kyungsoo’s car,” he began, “Kyungsoo isn’t too happy about it, but he’s glad nobody was killed.” 

Misook sighed in relief, “That’s good to hear, where are they now?” 

“Baekhyun’s house,” said Kris bluntly, “they’ll be back tomorrow, I presume. You should get some sleep.” 

Agreeing, Misook finished off her hot chocolate and took herself off to bed, though not without dropping by the infirmary to see how Jongdae was doing first. He was sound asleep in one of the hospital beds when she arrived. She’d learned from Yixing that the members often didn’t sleep in the infirmary unless they wanted to be left alone, so the fact Jongdae was sleeping here meant that he would be out of action for a while. Though, that did make her wonder who was in the surveillance room. Jongdae and Sehun usually shared the job - so she’d been told - but Sehun wasn’t here and Jongdae was incapacitated. 

She went there next as she knew that she wouldn’t sleep unless she fed her curiosity. Misook found Kris in there working the controls, though admittedly he didn’t really have much to focus on so probably wasn’t doing what Jongdae usually did. He hadn’t appeared to have noticed her when she walked in, or she thought. He had his feet up on the desk and an expression of concentration mixed with boredom, a steaming mug to his left and a tablet to his right. Misook also noticed that he was wearing a wristband on his right wrist, covering his mark. 

“Something you want, princess?” So he had noticed her.

“I’d like for you to not call me princess,” she muttered, but upon seeing Kris’s disgruntled face and realising she’d just sassed him, she quickly changed the subject, “what are you doing?”

Kris paused, and at first Misook thought she was about to get an earful, but his expression softened slightly, “Keeping an eye on things,” he said. 

The short conversation ended there, the room fell silent, and Misook became increasingly aware of her surroundings. The surveillance room felt very different compared to the previous times she’d been there, though she couldn’t quite place what it was. Everything still seemed to be in working order, everything from the colour coordinated pens in pots on the desk to the pristine stacks of files in the corner that looked like they were dusted every other day. The water cooler in the corner had also been cleaned. Even Jongdae’s favourite mug was still in its place; three centimetres from the wall so as to avoid being knocked off the desk but far enough back that he could fit a laptop in front of it comfortably without it getting in the way. 

She eventually decided that the thing wrong with the room was the occupant itself. He hadn’t spoken to her all day and when he had spared her a few words he’d sounded like he didn’t want to talk to her at all. Maybe this would be a good time to ask him about it. It was past two in the morning and no good decisions were ever made after one thirty so what did she have to lose.

“Did I do something wrong?” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop herself. 

He narrowed his eyes, opened his mouth, but then closed it again as if trying to find the right words. Misook jumped the gun and took that as a question he didn’t have a reasonable answer for. 

“Was it something I said-“

Kris cut her off, “No.”

He was definitely lying, “You haven’t spoken to me all day, you didn’t even acknowledge me at breakfast,” 

“Maybe I have good reason not to,” Misook could tell he’d been trained by her father. He had the exact same body language, tense shoulders, clenched fists, body turned away from her, that her father had whenever her or her sister was mad at him or did something to displease him. It didn’t often happen, but it happened often enough that Misook recognised the motion. 

“Then what is it?” She asked again. Kris blinked. 

“It’s none of your business,” His stubborn tone didn’t have any effect on her. 

She folded her arms, “You’re avoiding the question, something is obviously up,” 

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, something he often did when he was about to start arguing with somebody, Misook had discovered. He’d done it just before leaving the surveillance room the previous day. Whatever he was going to say, she would find out why he’d blanked her the entire day, even if it hurt his feelings.

She took a step backwards when he swung his legs off the desk and stood up. She moved out of the way when he stalked towards the door, and she backed away even further when he pressed the manual door lock so nobody could get in. Or out.

Kris then turned to her, his face devoid of emotion, and sighed heavily. 

“I overheard you talking to Baekhyun yesterday,” His voice had gone quiet, as if reluctant for her to hear, but still held malicious connotations, “you don’t have a right to be asking questions about me or anyone else in this building, I am your leader, and you better respect that,” 

He took the few short strides towards her and roughly pulled her towards him, lowering his mouth to her ear. 

“If you ever ask personal questions about me or my team again, you will not live to see another day.” His voice was low and threatening, and for once Misook actually felt slightly uneasy. 

Kris went back over to the door and unlocked it before saying anything else, and Misook didn’t stick around to ask any more questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I make any changes to chapters or add a bit of info I will put it in the notes at the beginning of the next chapter so make sure you read those in case you need to read the previous chapter again! It probably won't happen but just in case it does, read the author notes! Thanks, guys!


	8. Ch 8

Like Kris had said, Sehun and Baekhyun arrived back at the base the following morning with a couple of new guns in their possession. Though the operation had gone to shit, the two of them had managed to grab a few from open boxes before making a break for it. Neither of them had been injured in the process, and Misook was happy to see Sehun in the surveillance room. 

“I don’t believe we’ve officially met,” Sehun said to the girl as she walked through the open door - something that set him apart from Jongdae. “Sehun,”

Misook bowed to him, “Misook,”

Much like Kris had done the previous day, Sehun had his feet up on the desk and was messing around with the tablet while simultaneously watching the cameras. 

“What are you doing?” She questioned. 

“Nothing much,” Sehun answered, “not a lot is going on this morning,” he yawned. 

“What time did you get back?” 

“About an hour ago,”

Misook frowned, “Have you even slept?”

He shook his head, “No, but Jongdae’s dosed up on painkillers so Kris doesn’t want him watching the base,” 

Understandable, “Couldn’t Kris do it?”

Before Sehun could reply, a loud bang came over the speakers and one of the cameras suddenly shut off. The camera was one not far away from the surveillance room, so Sehun jumped from his seat and went to go check without bothering to lock the door behind him. Misook followed him with a hand resting on her hip in case she needed to draw her gun, but what they found when they turned onto the corridor that led to the stairs leading up was not what either of them were expecting. 

A girl with long, dark brown hair was lying on the floor laughing hysterically as Minseok tried to pull her to her feet. The source of her laughter became apparently when Misook noticed the girl was only wearing one shoe, and her eyes automatically went to find the camera that had been busted. Low and behold, sitting lodged between the ceiling and the damaged camera, was the girls’ other shoe. 

“What happened?” Sehun asked. 

It took a good minute for the girl to stop laughing, but when she did she used Minseok as a crutch to pull herself off the ground. She stood an inch shorter than Minseok, with waist length hair, and an outfit that would rival Mijung’s on a night out. 

“Minseok surprised me!” She giggled, throwing her arms around him. Misook could sense Minseok’s discomfort. 

The girl turned her attention to Misook, “Hi! I don’t think we’ve met! I’m Lien, Li Lien, and you are?”

“Misook, Kim Misook,” 

Before Lien could say anything else, Minseok chimed in, “Misook, Kris has a job for us,” 

Misook opted not to ask questions until the two of them were walking into the lobby where Kris and Joonmyun were waiting. The two of them stopped conversing when Minseok and Misook joined them at the reception desk. 

Kris was first to speak, “We’re going to scope out the warehouse, see if our buddies from across the river left anything behind,”

“Won’t the police still be there?” 

“Kyungsoo said they pulled out this morning,” Kris mentioned, “the place is clear,” 

“So what’s the plan?” Misook said. 

Kris explained that the three of them would simply go to the warehouse, get in, look around, and get out. It was better for just the three of them to go as it would draw less attention, and after yesterdays operation not going as smoothly as planned, Kris wanted this one to run as smooth as possible. Misook did wonder why she was being brought along for the ride considering she was the newest member, though she did presume that Kris had his reasons.

 

 

The warehouse looked very different in daylight. It was hard to establish which window Misook and Jongdae had escaped from when they arrived because there were multiple windows, all of which had their glass missing, and most of which were above trampled patches of grass so it could’ve been any of them. Seeing them in full daylight properly put into perspective how lucky the two of them were not to have broken something when they hit the ground. 

Getting into the warehouse was surprisingly easy despite the high police presence the previous day. The sun shone through the broken windows, illuminating the warehouse in place of the smashed lightbulbs. 

“Any idea where these guns will be?” Misook whispered to nobody in particular as they passed through the first level of the warehouse. 

“Jongdae seems to think they were on the upper floor on the right side,” Minseok explained, “it’s a good starting point,” 

Minseok led the way up to the first floor, with Misook following after him and Kris bringing up the rear. The steps were unstable, and creaked with each step, though Misook and Minseok didn’t appear to care. Kris, however, was taking every step as carefully as possible as if wanting to prevent the stairs from moving. Misook thought she caught a glimpse of nervousness across his features but decided not to question it. 

The floor became increasingly unstable at the three of them walked across the wooden corridor to the room on the far right. The door was gone, and inside looked like complete carnage. Wood fragments lay strewn across the floor, tables upturned and remnants of what looked like they could’ve once been cabinets littered the sides of the room. Misook found it hard to believe that anything of value could’ve been left in there, but low and behold when Minseok started sifting through the broken wood, he found what they were looking for. 

A small black case containing two handguns. 

“Is this it?” Minseok looked up at Kris, who had remained by the door instead of entering the room. 

The male nodded, “Yeah, that’s it, let’s go.”

Kris’s eagerness to get out of the building had Misook tilting her head. What exactly was his problem?

Just as the trio ventured back into the corridor, the sound of people running up the stairs caught them by surprise. Minseok took off first down a side corridor. Misook reached for her gun and followed after him. Kris fell behind rather quickly, but neither of them stopped to check if he was alright. 

When Minseok turned onto the last corridor, he was met with a large hole in the floor, spreading from one wall to the other with a gaping view of the ground floor down below. He skidded to a halt, Misook running into the back of him as he tried to judge the distance. 

Kris came around the corner a few seconds later. The colour drained from his face when he spotted the hole; his body was suddenly frozen. 

“We can jump it, come on,” Minseok commanded before taking a few steps back, running, and leaping over the gap. He cleared it with no problems. 

Misook opted to do the same, but when she looked to see if Kris was preparing to follow her, her heart sank. He hadn’t moved an inch. His eyes were locked on the gap. 

“Kris, come on,” She encouraged, “we have to go,” 

The footsteps were getting closer. 

But Kris wouldn’t budge.

“Kris, come on!” Minseok yelled. The other set of stairs was just beyond the corridor on the other side of the gap. 

Misook took a step towards Kris, and Kris took a step back.

“Minseok, get out of here!” Misook shouted as she tried to get Kris to snap out of his trance. No matter how hard she hit him, nothing was working. 

“But Kris-“

“Go!”

Minseok took off just as the owners of said footsteps came rushing around the corner. Misook drew her gun, but it was no match against the knockout gas grenades that came rolling towards them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not all that pleased with this chapter, but the chapters will gradually get longer from here. I have one chapter in my document that is over 6K. I might split it into two parts, but we'll see when it comes to it. Next update should be next Monday, but could be earlier!


	9. Ch 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't proofread this, I apologise if there are mistakes!

“This is your fault.” 

“Oh shut up.” 

The two of them had no idea where they were or how long they’d been knocked out for, but when they eventually came to it was clear to them that they were not in a police station liked they’d initially thought. The dark stone walls and lack of objects in the room could only tell them that they’d been abducted by a rival gang - at least, that’s what Misook thought when the two of them woke up tied together, back to back. 

“We could’ve escaped if you’ve just jumped the gap,” Misook hissed.

She was too angry with the situation to even bother trying to free herself from the ropes. Instead, she sat there, hypothetical steam rising from the top of her head as she waited for Kris to realise what a dick he’d been. 

Kris, however, remained silent. Misook continued with a sigh.

“So what’s the plan?” 

 

 

Joonmyun was not expecting Minseok to return to the base alone, and he definitely wasn’t expecting to hear that both Kris and Misook had been caught by the rival gang. Minseok looked exhausted when he came running through the lobby clutching his arm. 

“What happened?” Joonmyun questioned as he took Minseok to the infirmary. 

Yixing was already in there seeing to Jongdae when they arrived.

“We found the guns, heard footsteps, ran for it, and then Kris refused to jump a three-foot gap in the floor,” Minseok explained as he struggled to remove his jumper, “Misook tried to get him to jump but he wouldn’t move,” 

Joonmyun frowned, “He wouldn’t jump a three-foot gap?”

“No,” Minseok bit his lip as Yixing began prodding at his left arm, “he just stood there frozen, like someone had cast a spell on him,” 

“What happened to your arm?” Was Joonmyun’s next question. 

“The stairs gave way as I was coming down them- Ow!” He flinched as Yixing felt his forearm for breaks or fractures, “It was either fall on the gun case or try and catch myself. Starting to think the first one was the better option,” 

“It doesn’t feel broken,” Yixing proclaimed, “it’s more than likely badly bruised. I’ll wrap it up for you and give you some painkillers,” 

Minseok appeared sceptical, but then he wasn’t a doctor so he let Yixing do his work without complaint. Jongdae - who hadn’t said a word since they’d entered the infirmary - spoke up a moment later. 

“So, Misook and Kris were captured by rivals?” He was looking for confirmation. 

Minseok answered, “Yes, from across the river,” 

Jongdae’s expression became dark. Joonmyun and Minseok eyed him with confusion as he got off his bed and stalked out of the room. They both knew he wouldn’t be going after them - he pretty much never left the base unless he had a good reason. Jongdae never went out in the field unless absolutely necessary, and judging by his reaction this wasn’t one of those moments. Joonmyun didn’t blame him. Injured an outnumbered, he wouldn’t be able to do much even if he did manage to find Kris and Misook. 

“Are we going to do anything?” Joonmyun looked to Minseok for guidance. 

“I’m not sure we can,” He responded, “Kris always says you’re on your own if you get caught,” 

“But do the same rules apply to the leader?”

“I’d assume so,” said Minseok, “but do you think Kris would just sit around and wait to be rescued? That’s not his game,” 

Joonmyun thought about the situation for a moment. Minseok was right in the sense that Kris wouldn’t just sit around waiting for them to come for him, but if he were in a situation he couldn’t get out of without help he was basically stuck. However, he did have Misook with him. 

“Alright,” Joonmyun stated, “if they aren’t back by tomorrow, we’re going in,” 

Minseok blinked, “Look at you being all leader like,” 

“I’ve been friends with Kris for years, I’ve picked up a few things,” 

 

 

The two of them sat there in silence for at least an hour. Nobody had come by to see them since they’d come to, and Kris was beginning to think nobody would - at least not for today. The ropes around his wrists were chaffing. Misook hadn’t moved at all for the past hour, yet Kris had been constantly moving his legs every five minutes, irritating her further. 

“We can’t just sit here,” Misook muttered bitterly, “our guns are definitely gone, but do you have a knife on you?” 

“Why would I have a knife on me?” Kris answered as if it were a stupid question.

“I was hoping you did because I’d rather reach into your back pocket than you reach into mine,” Misook retorted, “left pocket, there’s pocket knife,” 

“…are you serious?” 

“No, I just want you to put your hand in my jeans and fondle my ass- of course, I’m serious!” 

“Fine, don’t yell at me,”

Kris reached back as far as he could with the restrictions and felt around. He found the left pocket with no issue, and as he slipped his hand in Misook lifted herself so he could slip the knife out with ease. Flicking it open and cutting the ropes was a separate issue, one that could take a while. 

“You’re the first woman to ever yell at me,” Kris mumbled, just loud enough for Misook to raise an eyebrow at him. 

“Really?” She responded sarcastically. 

“Cut me some slack, you can’t be mad at me forever,”

“Oho, you don’t know me well enough,” Just what was in that sleeping gas?

Misook felt the rope go first and didn’t waste any time in slipping her hands free and standing up to stretch her legs. Kris followed suit but much slower, and handed the pocket knife back to her before moving to the doorway and testing the handle. Of course, it was locked. 

“Don’t suppose you have a lockpick on that knife?” 

“Unfortunately not,” 

Kris frowned.

“But I do have hair grips,” Without missing a beat she pulled a large hair grip from her hair and handed it to the male. Kris pulled an expression that could only be described as ‘what the fuck are you?’. 

It was safe to say that Kris somewhat lacked lockpicking skills as it took him longer than Misook expected before the door clicked open. 

“What’s the plan? We have one weapon between us and are probably outnumbered,” Misook looked to Kris for a plan. He was the leader, he should have a plan. 

“I don’t have one, we’re just gonna make a run for it,” 

“Really? That’s the plan?”

Kris didn’t say anything. Misook scoffed at him. 

“Fine, let’s go,” 

Misook led the way as Kris opened the door. The building was eerily silent as they stepped out into the corridor. They’d expected to encounter at least one member of the rival gang, but as it turned out, the building appeared to be completely deserted. It was that void of humans that Misook was actually disappointed when they literally walked out of the front door without any confrontation. 

“There’s got to be a catch,” Misook voiced after a moment of looking around for potential gang members. 

“Let’s not stick around to find out,” 

Misook followed Kris as he took off into a run back towards the base. 


	10. Ch 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find The Big Bang Theory reference XD

As it turns out, the journey back to the base didn’t take as long as they’d thought and didn’t involve crossing the river, something that didn’t sit right with Kris in the slightest. Joonmyun was extremely relieved to see them when they stepped through the doors leading into the lobby and all but ran to the pair. Misook didn’t stick around too long. She was still annoyed at Kris and didn’t want to be around him any longer than necessary. Two sets of eyes followed her as she stormed off. 

“What’s up with her?” Joonmyun queried. 

“It’s my fault we got caught and she’s pissed at me for it,” Kris responded. 

“What did you do?”

“Don’t laugh at me but,” Kris was choosing his words carefully, “I…may suffer from acrophobia,”

Joonmyun blinked at him. “You’re scared of heights?”  

 

 

Misook had every intention of calling her sister and ranting to her for hours on end when she reached the dorms, but the sudden appearance of Jongdae stopped her in her tracks - if only for a few seconds. The look on his face was one of relief, followed by confusion as she took one look at him and disappeared off into her room without uttering a word. 

Heading straight into the ensuite bathroom, she ran herself a much-needed bubble bath. Mijung wouldn’t be able to understand a word she was saying if she didn’t take an hour or so to calm down. A bath seemed like the perfect way to do so. 

Sinking beneath the bubbles, Misook sighed in content. Compared to yesterday, the day had been anything but easy. She had no doubt in her mind that if her father were watching her right now he would be rubbing his hands together with a look of ‘I told you so’ written across his face. It wasn’t Misook’s fault that they’d been caught. If Kris hadn’t been there she would’ve escaped with Minseok without an issue. If anything her father should applaud her loyalty to her comrades. 

“Misook? You okay?” Came a voice from the other side of the door. 

A sigh, “Jongdae, how’d you get in here?” 

“I programmed the system, I know the overrides,” he informed. “Don’t worry, the bathroom doors all have manual catch locks,” 

Misook was glad about that. 

“What do you want?”

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” He pressed. 

“I’m fine,” She answered. 

“Well I know that’s bullshit.” _Really, what was his first clue?_

“Kris got us caught because he wouldn’t jump a three-foot gap in the floor,” Misook heard Jongdae snort from behind the door, though she couldn’t tell if it was because he found it funny, or if he thought Kris was ridiculous. Maybe both. 

“Want me to punch him?” 

“What? No!” Why would he even suggest such a thing? 

“I’m kidding,” He added, though he sounded like he wasn’t, “want me to leave you in peace?” 

“Yeah, please,” 

Misook stayed in the bathroom for a further five minutes after she got out of the tub, just to make sure that Jongdae had indeed left because she’d made the mistake of leaving her clean clothes in the bedroom. He didn’t need to see her in just a towel. 

 

 

Misook didn’t leave her room until after she’d phoned her sister, the call of which lasted almost two hours, meaning it was dinner time by the time Mijung had finished chatting shit about the guy who was supposed to be going on a date with her on Friday but had to cancel, and even then she delayed going to the kitchen until she was certain that Kris had eaten and returned to his room. She’d heard his door go around an hour ago, and she hadn’t heard it go again yet so the risk of running into him was rather high. 

The only person in the kitchen when she eventually decided to go and retrieve her dinner was Joonmyun. The man must’ve been lost in his thoughts as he didn’t notice her until she was sitting down opposite him. 

Joonmyun smiled at her, warmly, “Evening, are you alright?” 

She nodded, “Yeah, I’ve cooled off. How’s Kris?” 

Truthfully, she didn’t really want to ask about him, but one half of her wanted to know if he was mad at her for being mad at him, and the other half hoped he forgot about the whole thing and learned from his mistake. 

“Pretty sure he’s still sulking,” he informed, “he told me the reason he didn’t want to jump is that he’s scared of heights.”

Are you _fucking_ kidding me?

“He’s scared of heights?” Misook repeated, just to make sure she’d heard right, “He’s what? 6’2? How can he be afraid of heights?” 

The male shrugged, “I guess anyone can have a fear of heights.” 

True. “Of all the things he could be scared of, heights definitely wasn’t on my list,”

Joonmyun responded to her with another shrug. Somehow Misook managed to finish her food before him, but she had been eating her food a lot faster than she was used to since moving into the base. It was hard to eat food slowly when it tasted so good. 

“Should I go talk to him?” She asked. 

Joonmyun eyed her, “Maybe? I haven’t seen him this soft in a while,” 

Snorting, Misook deposited her plate in the sink and bid Joonmyun goodbye to go in search of Kris. She checked his room first, but after a few knocks and thirty seconds of silence, she decided that he wasn’t in the dorms. Kris had said the day he met her that he was usually in his room or the lounge, but he wasn’t in the lounge either. She should’ve known that the next place she thought to look would have her to bumping into Jongdae instead. 

“Hey, have you seen Kris?” 

Jongdae shook his head, not taking his eyes away from his computer as Misook joined him in the surveillance room. 

“No, why?”

“I need to talk to him,” stated Misook, “can you bring the cameras up?” 

Jongdae clicked his tongue, “I can,” he said.

Misook was confused when he didn’t. She asked again. 

“Could you bring up the cameras?”

“I could,”

Okay, he was definitely messing with her. 

“ _Will_ you _please_ bring up the cameras?” 

“Sure,” He did as she asked without even looking up. 

Misook scanned the camera feeds in hopes of finding Kris, but after looking over each of the forty or so feeds several times, it was very clear to her that he wasn’t in the base at all. Sighing, she turned on her heel and left without saying another word to Jongdae, whom of which didn’t appear to care if she stayed or not. 

Retiring to her room she changed into her pyjamas and brushed her teeth before climbing into bed. Snuggling down under the covers, she drifted off into a pleasant sleep. She would find Kris tomorrow. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter will be longer, it's already half written and over 2K words.


	11. Ch 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god this chapter was not supposed to be almost 4K! oops.

Kris didn’t appear on any of the surveillance cameras until early afternoon the following day, and even then he looked as though he wasn’t going to stick around for long, so Misook wasted no time in sprinting across the base to the armoury where Kris was testing out what she could only assume was his new gun. Chanyeol was also in there busying himself with the ammunition cabinet, only turning his attention away momentarily to greet Misook as she walked in. 

Kris remove his mufflers and turned around just as Misook reached the middle of the room, stopping her in her tracks. Kris wanted to say something, that much was clear, but whatever string of words he wanted to come out of his mouth ended up as a simple “Oh, hello,” 

“We need to talk,” she said, her eyes flicking to watch Chanyeol vacate the room - either to give them privacy or to avoid an awkward encounter. 

Kris removed the remaining bullets from his gun and put them on the table a short distance away before folding his arms. Misook held back an eye roll. 

“Look,” she began, “I’m sorry for yelling at you, and I’m sorry that you have a fear of heights, that’s not your fault,” 

The male blinked, “I’m sorry too,” 

“For what?”

“For getting mad at you the other day,” he continued, “I don’t want you asking too many questions about us, it’s my job to keep everyone in this base safe, but I shouldn’t have threatened you,” 

Misook nodded in response. She hadn’t come in search of an apology for that, but she welcomed it nonetheless. To be perfectly honest she was surprised that Kris was even apologising at all. 

After a few moments of silence, Kris reclaimed the bullets from the table and reloaded his gun. 

“I need to go, the people who captured us at the warehouse weren’t from a rival gang. At least, not one that we know. Jongin and I went back there last night but it was too dark to see anything, so we’re going back there now,” Kris explained as he walked out of the armoury. Misook followed. 

“Since when do you work with Jongin?” Was Misook’s first question. 

Kris grunted, “He thinks he knows something, and as much as I dislike the guy he’s the only operative in Sector E available right now. Yixing doesn’t want Minseok leaving the base for the time being until his arm heals, Tao, Baekhyun, and Luhan are out, Joonmyun can’t leave the front desk as our _taxi friend_ has shown up again, and Kyungsoo is busy doing police business on the opposite side of the city”

“What about Chanyeol? Sehun? Jongdae?” 

Kris turned his nose up at the last name. 

“Chanyeol is busy doing repairs and Sehun is supposed to be helping him,” Kris added. 

“You haven’t mentioned Jongdae,” Misook pointed out. 

“He’s injured, he wouldn’t be useful.” He remarked, bluntly. 

His statement didn’t sit well with her, but Kris was already meeting up with Jongin in the lobby and sprinting out of the door before she could ask further questions. 

 

 

Misook was in the middle of responding to a text from her sister later that day when the lights suddenly went out, throwing the room into darkness. The gentle hum that usually surrounded the base fell silent, so silent you could hear a pin drop. Flicking the torch on her phone on, she put her shoes on and made her way over to the door. 

She soon realised that the power must’ve been completely out when she pressed the door release button and nothing happened. She pressed it again for good measure, and when the door failed to open she pulled on the handle and opened it manually. The corridor was eerily quiet until the sound of footsteps caught her attention, followed by a bright light almost blinding her. 

When the footsteps got closer she realised that it was Jongdae with a head torch, and what looked like a tool bag slung over his shoulder. 

“What happened?” Misook questioned as she blocked the light from her eyes. 

“Power failure, my guess is faulty wiring somewhere but Sehun says he needs assistance in the surveillance room, something about needing a small person to fit in a hole,” Jongdae explained, hanging her the tool bag and a head torch from his pocket.

“Couldn’t you do it?” Misook hinted. She really didn’t want to be crawling into small spaces. 

Jongdae raised an eyebrow. “Are you kidding? My shoulders won’t fit through there, no matter how skinny my ass is.”

Before Misook could protest he began walking away, whistling as he went and with a spring in his step. One day she would understand Kim Jongdae, but today was not that day. Sighing, she adjusted the tool bag on her shoulder and ventured off towards the surveillance room. 

Sehun was standing on Tao’s shoulders when she arrived, peering into the hole in the ceiling as Tao protested. 

“Tao will you stay still and shut up!” Sehun yelled as his foot slipped. 

Misook was sure she heard something clatter to the ground as she put the head torch on. Turns out she was right and had to quickly move the screwdriver out of the way before Tao stepped on it and sent Sehun crashing to the ground. 

“Need help?” Misook said, putting the tool bag down and steadying Sehun’s foot so it was back on Tao’s shoulder. 

“Oh, hello,” Tao said as if only just noticing she was there. 

“Yes please,” Sehun popped his head out from the hole in the ceiling. His hair was covered in dust. “I can’t reach the back where the main breaker switches are, it looks like one of them has come loose.” 

“Sure, what do I need to do?” She was glad she didn’t decide to wear a skirt today. 

“We’ll help you into the roof and then you need to find the breaker switch that’s come loose, should be at the back so you’ll have to climb in. Find the switch and change the screws - Jongdae should’ve put some in the tool bag - and then push it back into the board, flick the switch, and the power should come back on.” Sehun explained, hopping off Tao’s shoulders. 

“Any reason Sehun wasn’t the one on the bottom?” 

The boys stared at her. 

“Okay that came out wrong,” Misook corrected herself, “Why wasn’t Sehun the one lifting Tao? Wouldn’t it make more sense for the one with broader shoulders to be the stool?” 

“Sehun knows more about electronics than I do and I don’t like being lifted,” Tao said simply. Sehun nodded in agreement. 

“Alright, lets get this over with,” 

It took her a minute to find the right screws as there were a few different types, but once she did she slipped them, and the screwdriver, into her pocket and let Sehun and Tao lift her into the hole. She shot up so quickly because of their strength that she almost lost her balance; the hole was a lot bigger than she first thought, albeit very dusty, which had her sneezing the second she got in.

“What does the breaker switch look like?” She asked, scanning the area with the head torch. 

“It’s grey in colour,” Sehun answered. 

Looking around, Misook spotted what looked like a large grey board filled with switches and began heading towards it. When she reached it, she pulled out the screwdriver and screws with every intention of fixing it quickly. However, there was more than one switch and they all looked the same. 

“Guys, which one is it?” 

“Third row, second from the left. It’s the only one that’s loose.” 

Finding the right switch she began to remove the faulty screws and replace them with the new ones. It was an easy fix, but it did make her wonder how the old screws came to be like that in the first place. None of the other screws appeared to be in bad condition, and she had no reason to believe that all of the other screws had been changed at a different time. Once she was done she flicked the switch. The hum of the base returned and the lights of the surveillance room shone brightly through the hole, signalling that the power - at least for the surveillance room - had come back on. Backing up, she lowered her feet down and the boys caught her in their arms like a bride. 

“There we go,” Tao smiled. 

“Need anything else?” Misook questioned as she dusted herself off.

Before either of them could reply, Jongdae came waltzing in like he’d just struck gold and set his laptop down on the counter. 

“Sweet, the power is back on in most of the base, there are a few rooms where it hasn’t yet but that’s something I can fix,” Jongdae turned to Misook, “thanks for the help, sweetheart, might I suggest a shower?” 

Misook narrowed her eyes at him, but nonetheless, a shower sounded like a good idea as she bid the boys goodbye and went back to her room. The hot water was heaven against her skin as she scrubbed herself clean. She’d had to crawl into loft spaces when she was little to get things that her mother had hid and somehow in the process pushed them too far out of reach, resulting in her having to enlist the help of her daughter. She wasn’t a huge fan of dust, but she couldn’t say she was freaked out by it. If anything it was just a mild inconvenience, one that was easily remedied by a hot shower. 

After spending a good half hour letting the water run through her hair and down her back, she stepped out into what was a very cosy bathroom. Wrapping the towel around her she went over to feel the radiator and discovered that the heat had been turned up a notch, though she had no memory of doing so.

She almost screamed when she stepped out into her bedroom and saw a very dusty Jongdae sitting on her bed reading the book she’d almost finished. 

“Jongdae, what are you doing in my room?” She asked through gritted teeth, making sure to keep a firm hold of the towel. He better not make this a habit. 

Jongdae smiled at her as if he wasn’t intruding on her at an inconvenient time. “Hey, sweetheart.” 

“Do you mind? I need to get dressed,” Misook said as she scooted around the bed to get to her dresser, “and you didn’t answer my question as to why you’re in here.” 

“Oh, thought I’d check up on you,” he responded, “also my shower broke so I came to ask if I could use yours.” 

“Sure, but can you leave so I can get dressed?” 

“Why, I’m not shy.” 

“Well I am, now get out!” 

Putting the book down, Jongdae strolled out of her room without a second thought. Misook made he was gone before returning to her drawers to pick out a fresh set of clothes. She opted for dark jeans and a graphic T-shirt just in case she had to go crawling around any more dirty places again and opened the door so Jongdae knew he could come back in when he was ready. He returned five minutes later when she was putting her hair in plaits, with a dark green towel and a fresh set of clothes in his arms. 

While Jongdae went for a shower, Misook went to grab a coffee from the kitchen. She picked out the largest mug she could find and filled it almost to the brim with freshly made coffee and pinched a pack of biscuits from the cupboard to take back to her room, making a note to add them to the shopping list for later. What she wasn’t expecting when she arrived back at her room was to find Jongdae standing in front of her bed half naked with a towel around his waist while he towel dried his hair. 

“Jongdae! Could you not do that in the bathroom?” She asked, mortified. Though she did find it hard to draw her eyes away from his well-sculpted body. The bandage on his left bicep had just been changed, and was that a tattoo on his lower back? 

She pouted when he turned to face her before she could see it, even if she was greeted with the sight of well-toned abs and silver chain necklace. 

“Sorry, forgot this wasn’t my own room,” Jongdae mused, “could you turn around or cover your eyes for a sec?”

She didn’t need to be told twice as Jongdae all but dropped the towel around his waist and pulled on a fresh pair of boxers. 

“Okay, you can turn back around.” He said as he fetched his jeans and sat down on the bed to pull them on. Guys had it so lucky. 

“You aren’t bothered about me seeing your nakedness, are you?” 

Jongdae laughed at her as she set her coffee mug and biscuits down on the bedside table. Apparently, her question was answered when Jongdae took one look at his T-shirt and decided to keep it off, for the time being, instead taking the time to look around her room like a curious child. 

“This place is so neat and tidy,” he commented, “much tidier than my room.” 

“I am not cleaning for you,” she muttered, picking up her book.

“I wasn’t going to ask you to, sweetheart.” Misook could tell he was joking. 

Climbing onto the bed, Jongdae made himself at home, pushing the pillow up behind him so he could lean against the wall and watch what Misook was doing. She really didn’t like people reading over her shoulder so she put her book down and turned to him. 

“Do you want something?” 

“Wondered if you wanted to go on a date?” 

What?

Misook was lost for words as she stared at him, looking for signs in his eyes that he was joking about this as well. It didn’t seem like he was.

“Um…” was her response. Jongdae chuckled. 

“Not like a _date_ date, just a coffee date,” he said, gesturing to the steaming mug on the bedside table. 

“Still sounds like a date to me.” She took a biscuit from the packet and shoved it in her mouth. 

“Do you want it to be a date?” He raised an eyebrow. 

“I don’t often go on dates.” 

“That doesn’t answer my question.” 

“Well,” she thought about it for a moment, “yeah why not.” 

“Cool,” he got up off the bed and paced to the door, “see you later, sweetheart.” 

And with that Jongdae was gone. She knew he’d be back soon though because he’d left his wet towel dangling off the end of the bed. Turning her nose up at it she picked it up and went to hang it in the bathroom, where noticed that Jongdae had left something the sink. She picked up what looked like a bracelet, one that looked as though it used to be engraved with something but had had years of wear and tear that had made the writing almost unreadable. The outside was encrusted with a few diamonds and emeralds, but it looked as though it had lost a couple over the years. Holding onto it, she walked back into her room just as Jongdae came back in. 

“Looking for this?” She asked, holding the bracelet up. Jongdae smiled fondly as he took it from her. 

“Yeah, forgot I left it in here.” He said as he put it back on his left wrist. 

“What does the engraving say?” 

Jongdae looked at her, “If you’re never lost, you’ll never be found.” 

“That’s cute.” 

He snorted at her, “it’s something I’ve lived by for many years.” 

Misook smiled. It reminded her of the embroidery her mother had done for her when she was born. A tiger with her birth date, weight and time of birth underneath it as well as her name and a saying that she couldn’t quite remember. She wasn’t sure where she’d put it after they’d moved house, but she made a mental note to ask her sister to see if she could find it so she could hang it up when she returned home.  

“Something on your mind?” Jongdae questioned, pulling Misook out of her nostalgia trip. 

“Oh, just thinking about something back home, that’s all.” 

The answer was satisfying enough for Jongdae to nod in response and leave the room once more. Misook then decided to watch something on her phone while she drank her slowly cooling mug of coffee and munched on biscuits before she made an attempt to head to the gym. She had to work off all the biscuits she was eating otherwise she’d never stay as slim as she was, and she hadn’t used the gym since moving into the base so she wanted to test out the equipment. 

One mug of coffee, half a pack of biscuits and a few episodes of her favourite drama later, she changed into a sports bra and leggings before slipping a t-shirt on and running to the gym, which acted as her pre-gym warm up. She’d pre-made a fresh workout playlist and was excited to listen to it, but was rather disappointed when she discovered she wouldn’t be alone in the gym. Surprisingly Sehun was lifting weights in the corner and Tao was spotting him. 

“Hey,” Tao said as he noticed Misook heading towards him. 

“Hey, working hard boys?” She responded. 

Tao nodded as Sehun pushed the weight into his hands so he could put it back on the holder before sitting up and wiping the sweat from his forehead. Sehun switched places with Tao just as Misook was picking up one of the smaller weights from the side. He cast her a look that Misook could only describe as ‘are you sure?’as she picked up the second heaviest weight on the bench. The look soon vanished when she picked it up with ease and was replaced with an expression that Misook would take as ‘didn’t expect that’. 

She didn’t spend too much time lifting weights as she really wanted to get in some running before anyone else arrived, so after lifting weights for ten minutes she put them down and ventured over to the treadmills. She put her earphones in and put her playlist on, followed by setting the treadmill to her desired incline and speed and began to run. She spotted both Sehun and Tao eyeing her in the mirror and almost laughed when the weight slipped from Tao’s grip, landing on the floor with a loud clunk. After spending so much time in her home gym with Mijung she’d forgotten about the reaction she’d receive from males. The only male that ever trained in the gym at home was her brother and her brother looking at her like Tao and Sehun currently were would be highly inappropriate, not to mention downright creepy. On the odd occasion while stretching he’d even gone as far as dry heaving when she bent over, an action which had resulted in him having a shoe thrown at his head and the wrath of her little sister to contend with afterwards. Misook found it highly amusing, even if her brother did not.  

Half an hour later she got off the treadmill and stretched her muscles a little while retrieving a bottle of water from the fridge in the corner. Sehun joined her shortly after, looking exhausted. 

“How do you still look so pretty after that workout?” He questioned, noting the severe lack of exhaustion on her face. 

Misook shrugged, “It’s not a hard workout. That’s easy mode,” 

Sehun gaped at her in disbelief but didn’t push the matter further. Misook found it kinda cute that he’d called her pretty, but at the same time, she knew that she was showing quite a lot of skin and shouldn’t take compliments from guys at the gym, no matter who they were. 

 

Deciding she’d had enough she waved goodbye before heading back to her room and hopping in the shower for the second time that day. She then changed into a pair of navy blue sweatpants, a t-shirt and large baggy jumper before tying her hair up and heading to the kitchen. The dim Emergency lights were still on, and Jongdae was in there when she arrived, glasses perched on the end of his nose as he finished off what looked like a bowl of soup. 

“Since when do you eat soup?” She questioned. 

Jongdae glanced at her, spoon in mouth. “Power’s still out, the only thing working is the stove and the stuff in the fridge won’t be edible now,” he explained. He had a point. 

“How long will it be before it comes back on?” 

Jongdae shrugged, “Depends, I’ve had a look for faulty wires and stuff but can’t seem to find any. The switch you pushed should’ve put the power back on but it didn’t come back in some rooms so I assume that’s a separate issue. I’ve managed to get the power back in every other room except this one. I still don’t understand why we only have Emergency lighting in this room,” 

“You’d think an Emergency power source for the fridge would be in place here, too,” Misook pointed out, “guess we’ll have to go shopping when it comes back on, then.” 

Jongdae nodded, “Definitely, no doubt Luhan will want more apples.” 

Misook sat down at the breakfast bar next to Jongdae and poured herself a bowl of soup which she’d noticed was sitting on the stove. Kyungsoo must’ve cooked again because as soon as she took a mouthful she melted into her seat. 

“Does Luhan eat anything else? I’ve only ever seen him eat apples.” She muttered, taking another spoonful. 

“He does,” Jongdae answered, “but apples are his favourite. He goes through at least three a day.” 

“Healthy.” 

The conversation ended there as Jongdae poured himself a second bowl of soup, this time slicing off a piece of bread from the loaf in the bread bin to go with it. Lost in thought, Misook then remembered something. 

“Are Kris and Jongin back yet?” It must’ve been at least four hours since they’d left. 

“Not that I know of,” Jongdae said. 

Loud footsteps coming towards the kitchen had two pairs of eyes shooting to the doorway. Joonmyun skidded to a halt, sweat dripping down the side of his face. Blood on his hands and a panicked look across his features had Misook and Jongdae abandoning the kitchen and following Joonmyun up to the lobby after he all but cried that Kris had been hurt. 


	12. Ch 12

Kris was lying on the floor when they arrived, but despite the blood on Joonmyun’s hands there appeared to be a severe lack of blood on Kris. It didn’t look like he was injured at all, but the pained expression on his face told a different story. 

“What happened?” Misook questioned as she bent down next to him. 

Joonmyun had disappeared off to find Yixing. Obviously, he didn’t want to leave Kris lying on the floor on his own, and there was no sign of Jongin. 

“Back,” Kris breathed. 

“His back,” Jongdae repeated, more audibly, “he must’ve hurt his back,” 

“Best not to move him until Yixing gets here,” Misook suggested, earning a nod of confirmation, “how do we get him to the infirmary?”

“Stretcher is the best bet,” he said, “we’ll need Tao, Yeol, Sehun, and Min to help, he’s not the lightest of people,” 

If Kris wasn’t in severe pain right then he probably would’ve thrown a punch at him, but the fact he didn’t - he didn’t even react to his statement - really put into perspective how badly injured he was. 

Joonmyun arrived back with Yixing, who upon seeing the state of Kris radioed for Sehun to collect a stretcher from the infirmary, and for Minseok and Chanyeol to come to the lobby immediately. Tao was already on his way. 

The doctor knelt down on the opposite side of Kris and began to examine him, asking simple yes or no questions that Kris just about managed to answer while checking the rest of his body for further injuries. Kris had scars literally everywhere, and his wrists were slightly bruised from the ropes a couple of days ago, but aside from that, his only injury was his lower back. 

Tao arrived first, with Minseok and Chanyeol arriving shortly after. Neither of them said a word, but their concern was obvious across their facial features, particularly Chanyeol’s. Sehun came walking in with the stretcher held above his head less than a minute later, and by the looks of it he’d also picked up a bag of emergency medical supplies that Yixing had sitting by the door of the infirmary for these exact situations. 

“Kris, on a scale of one to ten how bad is the pain?” Yixing questioned. 

Kris responded by lifting both his hands and showing eight fingers - two fingers less than Misook had expected. She guessed that it would rise to ten when the boys started to move him.

Yixing took the emergency bag from Sehun and unzipped the front pouch. He pulled out a bottle of fast-acting tablets and set them down at the side of him before opening the main compartment of the bag pulling out an unopened bottle of water. 

“I’ll give you these for now, and then we’ll see if you need a cannula once we get to the infirmary,” The doctor handed two pills to Kris, who put them in his mouth before taking a swig of water and swallowing.

Misook and Jongdae moved out of the way so Sehun could put the stretcher down next to Kris. 

 

 

Yixing asked Kris what his pain level was again after they’d gotten him to the infirmary, which proved to be a lot harder than they’d initially thought, and had them all wondering if it would be possible to install a lift between the ground floor and the floor containing the infirmary, though after some quick calculations Jongdae and Sehun deemed it impossible - if not impractical. 

The pain level had dropped to five once they’d got Kris comfortable on the bed nearest the cupboards, which lead Yixing to make the decision not to insert a cannula. If the tablets were already working and he wasn’t in as much pain as he could’ve been, there was no need to up the dosage. With Kris no longer afraid to move from fear of causing himself more pain, everyone’s attention turned to figuring out what had happened in the first place. 

“What happened?” Misook asked again, though this time in a slightly different context, “Where’s Jongin?” 

Kris turned to her, “We were ambushed,” he said, grimly, “as we left the warehouse. Eleven, maybe twelve males came out of nowhere. One of them snatched my gun before I could draw it, a further two jumped on my back, trying to pin me down. I managed to throw them, but in doing so I hurt myself. I’m not sure what happened to Jongin. One minute he was next to me and then the next he was bleeding. He helped me back here but didn’t stick around,” 

Joonmyun nodded, “The blood on my hands is his. He dropped Kris down and then made a run for it. What I want to know is why.” 

Kris began chewing on the inside of his cheek, “They knew him. They went for him more than me. I’m willing to bet my life that they know something about him that we don’t,” 

That was reassuring. “So what do we do about it?” Misook probed. 

“If he comes back here, we start asking questions,” Kris stated, “but for now I want everyone to work on finding out who these people are.” 

Something popped into Joonmyun’s mind, “Do you reckon Jongin was responsible for attacking me?” 

“It’s too early to say, but he’s definitely a suspect,” 

 

 

Yixing put Kris on bedrest in the infirmary so he could keep an eye on him. Sehun and Tao went back to whatever they had been doing before Yixing had radioed for them, Chanyeol tottered off back to the armoury, saying that he would get to work preparing a new gun for Kris when he recovered. Minseok disappeared off with Joonmyun, leaving Misook and Jongdae to head back to the kitchen to make a list of everything that needed to be replaced due to the power cut. Jongdae was pleased to discover that the power had fully returned. 

“So,” Jongdae said after a few minutes of quiet listing, “fancy going on that coffee date? We can stop by before heading to the supermarket,” 

“Yeah, why not,” Misook made sure to add apples to the shopping list.

“I need to discuss a few things with you,” Jongdae added, “things that can’t be discussed here,” 

That really caught her attention, but she didn’t verbalise her curiosity until they were actually grabbing their coats - well, hoodies - and leaving the base an hour later. After around fifteen minutes of walking, Jongdae took her into a coffee shop situated on the corner of an intersection. With wide windows and a balcony, it was the perfect place to people watch. Misook had no doubt that Jongdae had been there on numerous occasions as he not-so-subtly flirted with the barista while ordering their drinks. 

“Are you interested in her?” Misook mused as Jongdae set the tray down on the table. 

“Who, Soohyun? Nah, she’s an old friend from way back,” he explained, “I’ve been coming here every week since joining the gang, she’s always here so is always my server,”

“She keeps looking at you,” Misook wanted to wave at the girl so badly but held herself back. She wouldn’t want anyone thinking her and Jongdae were a couple. 

“If you haven’t already noticed, I am a very attractive and charming man,” Jongdae announced proudly. Misook snorted. 

“You wish,” 

He put a hand to his chest, feigning offence, “I’m hurt,”

“Sure you are. Now, what did you want to discuss?” 

Jongdae took a gulp of his coffee and adjusted his glasses, “Ah! Yes, I’ve been going through the CCTV from the day Joon was attacked and I think I might be onto something,” 

“Really? Do you have an idea of who did it?” 

He raised his hand and tilted it back and forth, “Sort of? My first thought was that someone had broken in, but I disproved that thought after checking the rest of the CCTV footage. The only bit of footage that was tampered with was from the time you and Kris left Joon. The footage comes back just as Kris is carrying Joon out of his lab,”

“So what does that mean?” 

“I checked the footage, nobody suspicious came through the front door of the base that day. The only members who did were Minseok and Baekhyun. Baekhyun came in and then left ten minutes later, and Minseok was in his room the entire time,”

“What does that have to do with the footage being tampered with?” 

Jongdae held his hand up, “I’m getting to that. The time between Joon pressing his panic button and Kris arriving at the scene works out at roughly seven minutes. Seven minutes is not an adequate amount of time for an intruder to gain access to the base, get through all the security doors, find the surveillance room, and somehow manage to override the system that I have in place, and _then_ find the right feed and delete the footage,” 

Misook put two and two together, “So the person who did it was already in the base?” 

“Precisely,” 

“Was anyone near Joon’s lab at the time, besides Kris and I?” Misook questioned. 

Jongdae shook his head, “No, nobody else was even close. Jongin did mysteriously disappear from the cameras shortly before the attack, but he didn’t reappear on any of the cameras. It’s physically impossible to get to the corridor leading to Joon’s lab without being seen on at least five cameras,” 

It was a lot of information to take in, but things were beginning to make sense. Judging by what had happened to Kris, and Jongin’s mysterious disappearance, it was quite clear that he should be held as a prime suspect in both instances. 

“What about Baekhyun? Could the people who invaded his home be linked to this?” There was no way the guy who attacked Joonmyun could be in two places at once. 

“I reckon they’re linked, but they definitely aren’t the same person,” 

Right. So the person (or people) who attacked Joonmyun were likely to be linked to the people who invaded Baekhyun’s home. Did that mean that these people were also responsible for attacking Jongin and Kris? One thing did linger on Misook’s mind as Jongdae continued to provide her with more information. 

Where was he during this whole ordeal? She knew he was in the surveillance room, which just so happened to be the closest room to Joonmyun’s lab. He might’ve been in there when she arrived, but where was he before that? Had he been there the entire time? 

As she listened to his explanations, she wondered if the person she was having coffee with could really be trusted. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can Jongdae be trusted? ;)


	13. Ch 13

It was safe to say that Jongdae was bored, and the incessant tapping of his boot against the van’s windscreen was driving Minseok up the wall. The two of them had been sitting in the van for well over an hour with no sign of life coming from the warehouse in front of them. The arranged meeting time was 1:30pm. It was now almost 3pm. They were late. 

It had taken Kris a couple of days and a shit load of painkillers to get back on his feet, but once he had he wasted no time in delegating jobs to everybody; Yixing had barred him from leaving the base until he could walk without pulling a pained expression, Joonmyun was busy putting his lab back together with the help of Misook, and everyone else was already out doing their own jobs. Even so, Jongdae was confused as to why Kris had wanted him to go out on a job. 

“Will you cut that out,” Minseok snapped, bringing Jongdae’s foot tapping to a halt. 

“I’m bored,” Jongdae muttered, “who are we meeting anyway? Kris was a bit vague with his instructions,” 

Kris had barely uttered more than two sentences to them before disappearing, leaving the two of them with a large envelope filled with cash and a meeting time. Minseok hadn’t asked any questions as they drove across the bridge to the other side of the river, but Jongdae could tell that he was unsettled by something. 

Minseok sighed, “I’m not entirely sure, but there must be a specific reason for Kris to have ordered you to come with me,” he said, “he usually never asks you to leave the base,” 

“We’re both injured,” Jongdae gestured to his left arm, “what use are we?” 

“Either he thinks we’re the best for this job, or he has an ulterior motive,” he said, “but we can wonder about that later, focus on the job.” 

Conversation ceased, and Jongdae returned his attention to the building in front of them. Time was ticking away, yet there was still no sign of the people they were supposed to be meeting. Jongdae glanced over at the envelope on Minseok’s lap. He wondered how much cash the envelope contained, but he knew better than to open it. Minseok wouldn’t be too pleased if he did. 

A door opening caught the corner of Jongdae’s eye, grabbing his attention immediately. _Finally, they’re here._

“Took them long enough,” Minseok muttered as he made to get out of the van, only to be stopped by a hand catching his forearm in a vicelike grip. 

“Let me do it,” Jongdae grumbled, “I know them,” 

 

 

Misook was surprised at how well Joonmyun had managed to clean up his lab on his own before she’d turned up to help. She’d never been in the room before, but she did know what water damage looked like and judging by the seemingly total lack of it, Joonmyun had some insane cleaning skills. 

She learned that Joonmyun’s lab did actually have a drainage system, but it had to be operated manually via a switch hidden away in one of the many cupboards. When questioned about why the switch was in a really inconvenient place, he’d informed her that he was rather clumsy with liquids and sometimes he needed to test the liquid so stopping it from running down an open drain was a vital feature. 

Misook helped Joonmyun put everything that hadn’t been damaged back in their places before casting a glance to the broken glass in the door - and to Kris who was busy mopping the floor on the other side - and wondered if Jongdae had any more leads on Joonmyun’s attacker. He seemed pretty confident at the cafe, but who knows what else he had going on inside that brain of his. 

“That’ll do for now,” said Joonmyun as he put the last few boxes back in their places. 

“The place looks good,” Misook added, “what else needs doing? Aside from the window.” 

Kris was the one to answer. 

“Sehun’s gonna sort out the window,” he mentioned, “all this place needs now is heat, and a good air,”

“Have you checked in with Minseok? They should’ve been back half an hour ago,” Joonmyun voiced. 

Kris shrugged, “They’ll be back when they’re back,” 

That was reassuring…

“Aren’t you in the least bit concerned?” Misook questioned. 

“Minseok is perfectly capable of handling any situation,” he insisted.

“What about Jongdae? He hardly ever goes out in the field,” 

Kris didn’t appear to be at all bothered about Jongdae’s wellbeing despite him being one of the more useful members of the mafia. Folding his arms he stared at Misook for a moment before turning to Joonmyun. 

“Call Minseok, see what’s happening,” 

 

 

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the boy wonder himself. Long time no see, Chen.” 

The hair on the back of Jongdae’s neck bristled as he stood face to face with a group of people he hadn’t seen in a long time. A group he’d hoped he’d never see again. 

“Shownu, how nice to see you all again,” Jongdae spat, tossing the envelope of cash towards him with every intention of getting this done as quickly as possible, “there’s your money, now give us what we came for so we can all go back to our lives,” 

Shownu chuckled, “Oh no, Chen, don’t you want a little catch-up? Last time we saw you was when you were being escorted into the back of a police van in handcuffs. I see prison did nothing to change your attitude,” 

“I don’t have time for this-“

“No, Chen, you do have time. You just don’t want your little buddy over there finding out about your past, do you?”

Shownu was slammed against the wall in an instant, seemingly surprised at Jongdae’s reaction as he’d assumed he wouldn’t try anything with it being seven against two, but oh, how wrong he was. 

“Don’t. Call me that,” Jongdae tightened his grip on Shownu’s collar as the other six members drew their guns. Minseok did the same, training his gun on the person whose gun was a few inches away from Jongdae’s head. 

“This is bold of you,” Shownu smirked. He was mocking him. 

“Just give us what we want, and leave,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Really not happy with this chapter. I guess it's more of a filler chapter but does contain relevant information for later on. 
> 
> Sorry it's so late, life got in the way of a lot of things. I won't bore with the details but a few weeks ago my partner broke up with me so I've not really been in the mood for writing. BUT, I'm over it, I'm back writing again, and I've already started planning even more of this ;)


	14. Ch 14

Yixing was fuming when Minseok and Jongdae returned to the base. Neither of them had been injured further, but the doctor was furious at Kris for going against his orders and sending them out on a job without his go ahead. His tipping point was when Kris ordered Jongdae to go out again - this time with Baekhyun - so he could run some of his own errands. But Yixing definitely wasn’t happy and took his gun from him. Nobody left the base without a gun, mission or not, so Kris was stuck for the day. 

Misook bumped into him just as she was leaving her room with a stack of DVD’s cradled in her arms. 

“Hey, is Jongdae about? I thought he might need some chill time,” she said, gesturing to the DVD’s. 

“He’s out,” Kris answered her. She frowned.

“Again? Didn’t Yixing ban him from leaving?” 

“No,” Kris lied, “there was another job that needed doing.”

Misook didn’t believe him in the slightest but decided to let it go. 

“Alright, seeing as my original film partner isn’t here, would you care to join me?” 

Kris appeared taken aback by the request, but nevertheless, he accepted the request and followed her through to the lounge. 

 

 

He didn't notice at first, but as the movie went on Misook's fingers gradually began drawing circles on the upper half of his thigh; absentmindedly or not Kris didn't know, but he was now having a hard time focusing on what the characters on screen were doing. Deciding to watch a romantic comedy alone with a girl would probably come back to bite him in the ass later, but who was he to say no. She wanted to watch a movie, and her intended movie buddy had been sent out on a deal. Kris should've been leading the deal, but Yixing had ordered him to stay at home after the ambush. An injured back wasn't going to do him any good if the enemy opened fire, and even though his back no longer hurt as bad as it had done, he wasn't going to defy the only doctor he trusts with his life - even if he did defy his orders and send out two injured operatives. 

His attention moved back to the movie when Misook moved her fingers away, but the moment was short lived when she readjusted herself so her head was in his lap. He wasn't sure where to put his hands. 

He swallowed. She didn't flinch when his left hand came to rest on her shoulder. Instead, she laced her fingers into his and pulled his arm around her. Kris probably wasn't going to get that hand back anytime soon if the actions of the girl in the movie were anything to go by. 

Misook's hand was softly caressing his, feeling the shape of every small scar that littered his hand all the way up to the brand on his wrist. He hadn't realised he was holding his breath until she stopped.

"Want me to stop?" She questioned.

Kris took way longer to respond than he had wanted. 

“No, no it's okay," he stammered, "Um, are you comfortable? Do you wanna move?" 

He couldn't see her smirk from his position, but he knew he was making his nervousness extremely obvious. Misook shifted onto her back so she was looking up at him. Eyes locked with hers, his breath left him again. And then what she said next had him lost for words.

"Are you just gonna stare at me all night or are you going to kiss me?" 

He didn’t know what to say. They weren’t all that close. Was kissing really appropriate? 

He scooped her into his arms and she adjusted herself again. Her legs fell to either side of his as she sat on his lap, hands resting on his shoulders and waiting for just the right moment to slide them down his chest. 

Kris placed his hands on her hips gently, lingering there for a couple of seconds before sliding them up her skinny waist and around the back of her shoulders, feeling the shape of her body under his touch. It was her who made the first move, running her hands down his chest before bringing them to the back of his neck and claiming his lips in a soft and tender kiss. 

He relaxed into the kiss, letting her take control.

“Kris,” He heard her mumble. 

And then she was no longer sitting on his lap. Her lips were no longer on his, and her hands weren’t caressing his neck. 

“You alright?” Questioned Misook from the side of him. 

Blinking twice, Kris realised that he’d just hallucinated, and Misook was, in fact, sitting next to him cross-legged with her hands holding a cushion as she looked at him funny. He was really glad that he had a cushion on his lap because he wasn’t entirely sure he’d be able to explain what was going on downstairs. 

“Yeah,” he answered after a few moments, “I’m fine,” 

“You sure?” She didn’t sound convinced, “You’ve been staring into space for the past five minutes. You missed the big kiss,” 

“Did I?” 

“Yeah,” 

 

 

Kris spent the rest of the movie trying to figure out why he’d just imagined kissing Misook. It was true that they really weren’t that close. They hadn’t spent much time alone together. He knew barely anything about her. 

“Misook, could I ask you something?” The words were out of his mouth before he could stop himself. 

Grabbing the TV remote, she flicked the off switch and turned to face him. 

“What’s up?” 

He hesitated, “Have you…ever had a dream about kissing someone?” 

He could feel his face heating up. 

“A few times,” she responded, “why?” 

“Oh, no reason, I was just wondering,” 

He was a terrible liar. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter started off so different.


	15. Ch 15

With all the shit that had been going on over the past week or so, Misook was rather surprised - and relieved - when Kris announced that they would be having a party this coming Friday to welcome her to the team. So far, the mafia was nothing liked she’d imagined it would be. Before arriving she’d imagined she’d be going out on jobs every other day, getting into gunfights with rival gangs, and doing, well, mafia stuff. 

She couldn’t understand why her father had been so adamant about keeping her away from the lower ranks. From what she’d seen so far, she could easily take care of herself. She wasn’t sure if she could say the same for some of the guys. 

Despite Kris being the worst liar in history, Misook didn’t let on that she’d noticed a difference in how he acted towards her. She knew that he’d been thinking about kissing her, that much was obvious, even if she hadn’t experienced it before she’d heard enough stories from her sister to have a good idea of what was going on inside his head. What she didn’t understand, was why. If someone wants to kiss you that mean’s they’re interested in you, right? 

 

 

Friday came by quickly, and as it turns out, a party hosted by the members of the mafia wasn’t much different to a university party. The only difference was that all the males were dressed in formal wear instead of tracksuits, something Misook was glad off, but it didn’t stop the members of Sector E wearing skinny jeans instead of trousers. 

The lounge had been done up rather well, with balloons taped to the walls and sequins scattered across a table containing different bowls of snacks and drinks at the very end, Misook was rather impressed with Sehun’s attention to detail. The mafia had their own secret party planner according to Tao. The best thing about this party was that when Misook walked into the room there weren’t any wolf whistles or cat calls like she’d gotten many times when out with her sister. There weren’t numerous men shouting obscene things at her, or making a rude gesture as she passed by. Instead, she was met by complete silence; all eyes on her. 

There were quite a number of people in the room, most of whom she didn’t recognise, and which put her on edge a little bit, but once she’d cast her eyes over the busy room and made a note of where each member of Sector E was located, she made her move. 

Dressed in a strapless, black sequinned dress that stopped just above her knees, black heels that made her taller but not so much so that she’d be taller than Jongdae, and hair pulled into a curly up-do that his sister would be proud of, Misook made her way over to the snack table where Jongdae was currently lurking. 

“Hey,” she greeted, grabbing a plate. 

Jongdae almost swooned at the sight of her, smiling like he’d just found a diamond amongst a pile of rocks. 

“Hey, sweetheart,” he replied, “you look gorgeous,” 

“Thanks, you don’t look so bad yourself,” she responded. Jongdae brushed up quite nicely, even if the ugly glasses remained. She took a bite of her food, “This is really good, who cooked?” 

“Probably Minseok, he likes cooking for large crowds,” 

“I must get cooking lessons from him,” 

Jongdae chuckled. A moment later the two of them were joined by the man himself. Misook almost jumped when he appeared next to her brandishing a fork filled with cake. 

“Misook loves your cooking,” Jongdae announced before Misook could get a word in. She shot him a glare before turning to Minseok and nodding her head.

“This is amazing, please teach me how to cook,” 

Minseok laughed, “You aren’t the first to ask, I’m thinking about starting a cookery class,” 

“On the side of being in, you know, the mafia?” Jongdae joked, earning a smirk from the elder. Minseok turned to Misook, where she finally got a good look at him. 

Dressed in a white shirt, black skinny jeans and a black waistcoat, Minseok looked like he’d been plucked right out of The Great Gatsby. He definitely looked like a catch, and she had no doubt that he would make a great boyfriend for someone one day. He’d be perfect for her sister if he was that little bit younger. 

“Would you care to dance?” He asked, offering his hand to her while placing the other behind his back - the fork had disappeared without her noticing. 

The music had just changed to a slow song, one which she’d heard before but couldn’t quite place. The voice sounded eerily familiar to her, but she lost her train of thought as Minseok stepped in front of her. Placing her hand in his, Misook was lead into the middle of the room. People who had been standing around talking parted like the Red Sea to allow them through, and once again all eyes were seemingly on her. 

Minseok placed his right hand on her waist and held her right hand in his left. Misook put her left hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes, very aware that she was being stared at by at least fifty percent of the room. 

“People are staring,” She whispered as Minseok took the lead. 

“They don’t often see me talking to girls, let alone dancing with them,” Minseok whispered back, “they’re probably staring at me, not you,” 

“That’s a relief,” Misook smiled. 

Dancing with Minseok was something she never thought would happen. She hadn’t really spoken to him much since arriving at the base, and from what she could gather he was quite a secretive person that didn’t allow people to get close to him. He rarely spent time in the base unless he was needed for a job, so she hadn’t seen him around much. 

The song finished sooner than she’d expected. Minseok brought the hand he was holding to his lips and gave it a gentle kiss, eyes staying locked with Misook’s. She almost felt herself blushing as he let go and walked away, heading back over to the snack table to grab a drink. Misook stared at him as he went, admiring the way he walked. However, her view was interrupted by a girl slightly taller than herself, meaning Misook got a good look at this girls cleavage before she took a step back and looked up. Her smile faded. 

“Just what do you think you’re playing at?” The girl sneered. 

Lien stood before her with a scowl on her face. Misook had only met the girl once, and the first time hadn’t exactly been buttercups and daisies. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Misook responded, sounding bored, “I don’t play games,” 

Lien crossed her arms, “You’ve been here less than two weeks and you think you have the right to dance with a guy like Xiumin? Nobody dances with Xiumin, not even me, and I’ve been here since before Xiumin arrived. Who do you think you are?” 

“Okay, first of all, he asked me to dance, I didn’t ask him. Second, I danced with him, I didn’t fuck him on the kitchen counter, and lastly, his name is Minseok, codenames aren’t used in the base” Misook pointed out, “though you should already know that if you’ve been here as long as you say you have,” 

“Xiumin doesn’t need a little girl like you,” Lien spat.

“Who Minseok likes is none of your business,” Misook spat back, “I have no interest in dating him,” she paused, and thought about her next sentence, “I’m interested in someone else,” 

Lien squinted at her, ”Already? You barely know anyone,” 

“What’s it to you?” 

“Is it Kris?” The girl said with conviction. 

“Does it matter?” 

Misook wasn’t one for backing down, and this encounter really showed that. With a look of indifference across her face, Misook watched as Lien stalked away from her, disappearing into the crowd. Jongdae appeared next to her shortly after, a look of concern spread across his features.  

“You alright?” He asked, following Misook’s gaze. 

She turned to him, “Yeah, fine,” she muttered, “who let her off the leash?” 

Jongdae snorted, “Been wondering that since she arrived here,” 

“Woof,” 

The music changed again and Misook realised that someone had grabbed a microphone and was humming along to the beginning of the song. Turning to where the TV hung on the wall, she spotted Joonmyun holding the microphone to his lips. 

“Since when can Joonmyun sing?” 

“Mm, he sings every now and then,” Jongdae clicked his tongue, “but only this song, he never sings any others,” 

“Why only this song?” 

Jongdae didn’t know. Guess even he didn’t know everything.  

“Where’s Kris? I haven’t seen him all night,” She realised. It was unlike Kris not to be shadowing her when she was surrounded by people she hadn’t met before, and especially because she was talking to Jongdae out in the open and he hadn’t been hassled about it yet. 

Jongdae shrugged his shoulders at her, “Not sure,” 

Misook didn’t have time to dwell on it before Joonmyun appeared, smiling brightly and skilfully balancing three cups in between his hands. Misook and Jongdae relieved him of two. 

“I didn’t know you could sing,” Misook beamed. 

Joonmyun smiled back at her, “It’s not something I tell people, no one outside this room knows,” 

“Well, you have a great voice,” 

“Thank you,” 

Misook took a sip of her drink, “What is this?” 

“Vodka and orange,” Joonmyun answered. “There’s a huge bowl of it on the snack table,” 

“I’ll be having a few of these,” Jongdae chuckled, “hey have you seen Kris tonight? You’re his best friend, right? Surely you know?” 

Joonmyun thought about it for a moment, “I haven’t actually, to be honest, I haven’t seen much of him the past few days. I haven’t really spoken to him since the day we tidied the lab,” 

Misooked pursed her lips, “that’s weird, he seemed fine last time I spoke to him,” 

Joonmyun chewed the inside of his lip, “he has his days,” 

 

 

Around an hour later, the floor began to sway beneath Misook’s feet. Her stomach felt like it was doing cartwheels, and everybody in the room was duplicating before her eyes. She wasn’t sure where Joonmyun or Jongdae had gone, but she was sure she’d seen Minseok leave half an hour ago, saying he had some business to attend to tomorrow and needed to get a good nights sleep. 

From the corner of the room, she could just about see a tall, blond-haired figure leaning against the wall. She could also just about make out the skinny, dark-haired wench that had yelled at her earlier in the night…kissing his neck?

Even though her vision was blurry, she could clearly see what was happening. Her eyes began to fill with tears as she stumbled over to the door. She didn’t need this shit right now. 

Reaching the door she somehow managed to break into a run, unbeknownst to her that she was being followed by someone equally as wobbly. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY THE PARTY CHAPTER.
> 
> This was supposed to be chapter 9. That clearly didn't happen.
> 
> My favourite chapter is up next! Might update tomorrow if no changes need to be made!


	16. Ch 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find the Hetalia reference!

When Misook woke up the next morning feeling very worse for wear. Her mouth could give the Sahara desert a run for its money, and her eyes felt like they’d been exposed to a seriously bright light. Just how much had she had to drink last night? 

It wasn’t until she sat up that she realised she wasn’t in her own bedroom. She wasn’t in her own bed, with her purple bed sheets and feather pillow. She also wasn’t alone in said bed. There was someone sleeping at the side of her, and he wasn’t wearing a shirt. Her heart dropped into her stomach when she realised who it was. Oh shit. What was she doing in bed with Joonmyun?

Looking down at herself, Misook realised that she was dressed in only her underwear; her dress long forgotten at the end of the bed. Why was she in Joonmyun’s bed, why was he not wearing a shirt, and more to the point why was she only wearing her underwear?

…and was that a condom packet on the table? 

“Oh fuck,” she whispered, all but rolling out of the bed. 

Disregarding the throbbing in her head, she quietly slipped out of Joonmyun’s room, picking up her clothes as she went. She wasn’t sure if the coast was completely clear when she left the room but Joonmyun’s room wasn’t far from her own so she didn’t think it really mattered. She just wanted to take a shower and make herself look presentable before heading to the kitchen in search of headache pills. 

 

 

After a long, relaxing shower she slipped on a pair of sweatpants and a baggy T-shirt before tying her wet hair up in a bun. It wasn’t until she ventured off to the kitchen that she discovered she wasn’t the only one suffering from a killer hangover. 

Sitting on one of the stools at the breakfast bar sat Jongdae. He had a blanket over his head and a mug of coffee between his palms. He looked just as rough as Misook felt, if not rougher - something she found really hard to believe. For once he wasn’t wearing his glasses. 

“Do we have any headache tablets?” 

“Top shelf, cupboard nearest the fridge,” Jongdae mumbled, pulling the blanket further over his head. 

“Thanks,” 

Grabbing a bottle of water from the top of the fridge, she popped out two ibuprofen pills and downed them in one. She also made a note that there was some paracetamol at the back of the cupboard in case she needed something stronger later. There was some freshly made coffee on the side, so she poured herself a large mug before sitting down at the breakfast bar and sighing. 

“Do you feel as shitty as I do?” She murmured, noting that Jongdae had closed his eyes. 

“That depends, have you ever been pinned to the floor and beaten repeatedly with a baseball bat?” He responded, opening one eye. 

“No,” Misook answered horrified, “have you?” 

“No, but I imagine this is what it feels like,” he rubbed his temple, “kill me please.” 

Misook hummed in response, “The feeling’s mutual.” 

“What happened last night? I don’t remember anything.”

“I have no idea but I woke up in Joonmyun’s bed.” Misook’s statement forced him to open his eyes and stare at her. 

“You what?” 

“Exactly what I thought. There was a condom packet on the bedside table but I don’t know if it was open. I didn’t stick around to find out.” 

“Joon’s not the kind of person to take advantage of someone. I doubt he tried anything on with you, sweetheart.” 

Misook sighed, “I know, but what if I did something stupid?”

“Well, if you did he definitely won’t hold it against you,” 

The conversation quickly took a different turn when Luhan entered the kitchen. Misook didn’t want anyone else finding out about her night, Luhan especially. That wouldn’t look good at all. Apparently, Luhan hadn’t been a victim of alcohol last night as he appeared to be happier than a kid in a toy shop.

“Good morning.” He chirped as he grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl. “Hey Dae, I heard you had a crazy night last night.” 

“Bite me.” 

“Oho, someone’s a bit touchy this morning,” Luhan smirked, taking a bite of his apple. 

“My hands will be getting fucking touchy with your neck if you carry on,” Jongdae growled, wincing at the immense throbbing in his head. “Ughhh, why won’t the light just shut up.” 

Misook almost laughed at him as he pulled the blanket over his head and masked himself from the world. Apparently, she wasn’t the only one wanting to hide today. Lucky for the both of them, Luhan disappeared as quickly as he’d appeared. Misook wasn’t willing to deal with his cheeriness while suffering from a migraine. 

“Is he gone?” Jongdae mumbled. 

“Yeah, he’s gone,” 

“Okay good, I don’t have to commit murder today,”

Finishing her coffee she poured herself another and poured a second one for Jongdae. He’d probably need it sooner or later. 

Just a minute after sitting down, a groggy looking Kris stumbled in, and by the looks of it, he was still dressed in what he’d been wearing the night before, though Misook couldn’t exactly confirm this as she didn’t remember seeing him the entire night. He seemingly didn’t notice the two sat at the breakfast bar as he took out the largest mug in the cupboard and poured himself a coffee before raiding the cupboard for pills. He only noticed he wasn’t alone in the room when he sat down and heard someone clear their throat. 

“Oh, I’m not alone,” His voice sounded croaky. 

“Yup,” Came Jongdae’s muffled response. 

“What happened last night?” 

“You don’t remember either?” Misook quizzed, running a finger across her temple. 

“I remember going to the party, but I don’t remember leaving or anything in between then and waking up with a killer hangover,” She’d never seen Kris looking so rough, “and Tao was in my bed,”

“I don’t remember anything past dancing with Minseok,” Misook said, taking a gulp of her coffee. Why did coffee taste ten times better when hungover. 

“You danced with Minseok?” 

“Yeah, he asked me to dance,” 

Kris didn’t respond to her answer. Instead, he stood from his seat and left the room, taking his coffee with him. Jongdae peaked out from below the blanket and squinted at Misook with tired eyes. 

“Doesn’t look like anyone who had alcohol last night remembers the night,” he groaned. “I think our drinks were spiked.” 

“What will Kris do if he finds out I may have slept with Joonmyun,” questioned Misook, sighing loudly. 

“I wouldn’t tell him if I were you,” he gulped down the entire mug of coffee in front of him, “it won’t end well,” 

“What if Joon tells him?”

“He won’t, Joon definitely won't want Kris to know he slept with his best friends not-sorta-girlfriend,” 

She turned her nose up at him, “We aren’t dating. We haven’t even hugged properly,”

The conversation ended there. 

After finishing their coffees, Misook suggested that the two of them go for a nap. Jongdae agreed, telling her he’d get Sehun to cover for him while he recovered from the previous night. Sauntering back towards the dorms, Jongdae ended up following Misook into her room as someone had apparently already commandeered his own room. Apparently none of the members who’d consumed alcohol had ended up in their own beds last night, aside from Joonmyun and Kris. Baekhyun was currently getting cosy with Jongdae’s pillow, which he’d throttle him for later. 

Crawling into Misook’s bed, the two of them snuggled up together, hoping that after a nap they’d feel much better.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My favourite chapter! If you found the Hetalia reference, well done!


	17. Ch 17

Misook was woken up by her phone ringing. Reaching for it before it vibrated off the table, Misook picked it up and wandered into the en-suite so as not to wake up the still sleeping Jongdae. Deciding not to turn on the light to avoid making her aching head worse, she answered the call. She had to hand it to whoever designed the base; it didn’t matter where she was, she still got full reception. 

“Hello?” 

 _“Hey, Sis! How’s life in the lower ranks?”_  

“Mijung? What time is it?” 

 _“Almost eight o’clock tea time, you sound groggy, have you been asleep all day?”_  

Misook snorted, “We had a party last night, I think our drinks were spiked, nobody remembers anything,” 

Her sister laughed, _“Fun night huh? Didn’t sleep with any guys, did you?”_  

“No, I’m not you,” she yawned.

 _“Rude,”_  

“Anyway, what do you want?”

 _“Just wanted to see how my big sis is doing, dad still thinks you aren’t going to last,”_ Mijung said, _“I believe in you, though.”_

Misook cocked a smile, “Thanks, Mi, oh, by the way, has that guy texted you back yet?” 

 _“Oh! Yeah, he asked if I were free on Friday but then cancelled Thursday night saying he’s got stuff to do,”_ Mijung sounded disappointed, _“he keeps calling me sweet pea,”_

“Cute, one of the members here keeps calling me sweetheart,” Misook smiled at the thought of Jongdae. 

 _“He sounds adorable,”_ Mijung laughed, _“anyway, Mi, I best go, going out with Jena tomorrow, bye sis!”_

“Bye, Mijung,” Misook put the phone down and returned to her room with every intention of getting back in bed with Jongdae until something caught her attention.

Just as she closed the door to the bathroom she heard faint shouting coming from down the corridor. Curiosity got the better of her and she decided to investigate. Opening the door ever so slightly, she peered out into the corridor. She couldn’t see anybody due to the dim lighting, but she could hear two voices, one male and one female. The male voice definitely belonged to Kris, and she was almost certain that the female voice belonged to Lien. 

“I swear he came onto me last night, and then I saw a girl fleeing from his room this morning,” Lien said, sounding hurt. Misook had heard that tone of voice before. The girl was definitely faking. 

“Joon would never do such a thing,” Kris growled back, “you’ve been nothing but a pain in my ass ever since you arrived. I thought accusing me of such a heinous act was bad enough but accusing my best friend of rape is the last straw,”

“If you won’t do something then I will, and before he knows it he’ll be back in a prison cell where he belongs,” 

Kris hit the wall at the side of her, “You ruined my life, I won’t let you ruin his,” 

Kris stalked off into Joonmyun’s room, leaving Lien to storm off out of the dorms and out of sight. Misook had every mind to follow him, but she didn’t want to intrude. What exactly had Kris meant by ‘you ruined my life’? Even if she did follow him, what would she say? She’d asked one too many questions before and it hadn’t ended well.

Retreating back into her room she crawled back into bed where Jongdae lay sleeping soundly. The warmth of the covers was reassuring. 

 

 

She didn’t wake up again until the clock read well past midnight. Jongdae appeared to have left a while ago as the bed sheets were no longer warm on his side. Misook was glad that her hangover had somewhat shifted, though a slight headache still remained it wasn’t unbearable. Hopping in the shower she quickly washed before changing into a fresh pair of sweatpants and a clean T-shirt, throwing the others in the washing basket as she grabbed her phone and left her room. 

Misook assumed that he’d gone to relieve Sehun of his surveillance duties so wasted no time in heading to the surveillance room. The door was unlocked when she arrived, and like she’d expected Jongdae was sat in front of the many monitors looking over the CCTV footage from the previous day. She noted that his glasses had returned and he’d exchanged his pyjamas for a long-sleeved plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and black skinny jeans. 

“What’re you doing?” Misook asked, sitting down next to Jongdae.

“Looking through the CCTV from last night to see who spiked the bowl of orange juice,” he brought up the camera feed from the centre of the room. The snack table, along with the bowl that contained orange juice - a bottle of vodka next to it - could just about be seen in the corner of the video. “The only person I’ve seen visit that bowl so far is Joonmyun and I highly doubt he’d spike our drinks,” 

Misook pursed her lips, “I don’t think he would either,” it was then that she remembered what she’d heard earlier, “I heard an argument between Kris and Lien before,” 

“Really? What were they arguing about?” 

“I think Lien must’ve seen me leaving Joon’s room this morning and assumed he’d come on to me,” she explained, “I didn’t hear the whole thing but my guess is she thinks Joonmyun assaulted a girl and Kris said something like ‘you ruined my life, I won’t let you ruin his’,” 

“Ah,” Jongdae responded, his tone noticeably changing, “yeah, she pretty much did,” 

“What do you mean?” 

He turned his head and lowered his voice, “Don’t tell him I told you this, but a few years ago when Lien first arrived her father wanted her to get with one of us to strengthen ties between our two ‘families’, with Kris being the leader it was only natural that she try and get him,”

“And he didn’t want her?” 

He shook his head, “Not in the slightest, if anything he was annoyed by her presence and when she eventually got him alone and put her hands on him, he shoved her away. She took it so badly that she started spreading rumours that he’d sexually assaulted her. It didn’t happen because I saw and heard the argument, he wasn’t even within five feet of her, but that’s what lead me to install the CCTV, so something like that couldn’t happen again,” 

“What happened to Kris? Did people believe her?” 

“She’s a good actress, all of her female friends believed her, some of the guys did as well - not us just to clarify - and went after him. If Sehun and Tao hadn’t been there he probably wouldn’t have come out of it as unscathed as he did, but since then he’s been wary around females, which is why everybody found it surprising when he started talking to you,” 

“What a bitch, that’s awful,” If Misook hadn’t liked the girl before, she definitely didn’t like her now. 

“Mhm, she tried coming onto me once, too” 

“Did she succeed?” 

“No, I told her I don’t play with plastic dolls, she slapped me and stormed away,” 

Misook snorted. It was a very Jongdae response and she absolutely didn’t blame him. 

“Kris is protective of Joon,” She muttered absentmindedly. 

“Yeah,” he agreed, leaning back in his chair, “he’s protective because Joon’s had a bad history of bullying. Even before joining the mafia he was bullied,”

“Bullied by school bullies or?”

Jongdae shook his head again, “don’t tell him I told you, this is between us, but before he came here he was in the military. He was discharged after being caught with contraband and sent to military prison for a year,”

“A year in prison? Surely he’s not the type?” 

“That’s the thing, he didn’t do it. According to Kyungsoo he got caught up in a fight between two other soldiers and was knocked unconscious in the process, they then decided to blame the fight and contraband - which happened to be drugs - on him and when he woke up from his coma he was arrested, tried, and imprisoned,” 

Misook could hardly believe what she was hearing, “So then how did he end up here?” 

Jongdae pushed his glasses back up his nose, “You know how Kyungsoo works with the police?” Misook nodded, “Well, he’s been working with them for quite a long time, way before I joined the mafia, and before he was a normal officer he was a prison guard for the military. He graduated at the top of his class and the higher-ups thought it would be good to test him, so he got sent to the prison that Joonmyun was serving in and ended up being allocated to him. He reported back to the boss and the boss managed to free him through connections,”

Misook found it hard to believe that her dad would do something that nice but at the same time Kyungsoo must’ve sold Joonmyun to him, sold him so well that her dad wanted him in the mafia as a forensic analyst. In other words, Joonmyun pretty much owed Kyungsoo his life. 

“That’s quite a backstory,” she mumbled in both amazement and pity, “does Kris have a backstory?”

Jongdae paused the video he’d just clicked on to give Misook his full attention, “No idea, he’s never talked about his past. The only thing we know is that he was adopted into the mafia when he was five, along with Luhan, so I guess he doesn’t have much of one,” 

“I’m only asking because of what I heard him say yesterday,”

Jongdae nodded,

“What about you? Do you have a backstory?” 

“Sweetheart, all you need to know about me is that I’m intelligent and adorable,”

Debatable. 

The conversation dwindled to silence after that, with Jongdae turning back to his laptop to continue going over the footage from the party and Misook watching quietly. Once again it appeared as though the CCTV had been tampered with. The CCTV showed the beginning of the party, all the way up until Minseok asked Misook to dance, and then skips to after Joonmyun grabs drinks for the three of them. The entire part of the party with Joonmyun singing was missing. 

“That’s odd,” Jongdae uttered, “a full four minutes of footage is missing,”

“That’s happened before though, right? Why is this one odd?” 

“Because when we looked at the last one the footage that had been tampered with was black, as if someone had thrown a sheet over the camera. This one doesn’t have any footage at all, it skips directly to the next clip,” Jongdae explained, rubbing his chin. 

Oh.

“Sehun was in here when you arrived right?” she said, remembering the conversation they had yesterday morning.

“He was, he’d been here all day yesterday,” Jongdae said, “he was one of the few who hadn’t had a drink,” 

“Would Sehun have any reason to tamper with the footage?” 

Jongdae shook his head, “he wouldn’t know how. I never showed him how to work the controls beyond switching between cameras,” 

“Hmm, aside from Luhan and Sehun do you reckon anyone else abstained from drinking alcohol last night? Might be worth going to ask them if they can recall what happened,” 

“Good plan, from what I can remember only five or six of us actually had alcohol, I know for sure that Minseok doesn’t drink, he’s probably a good person to speak to, if you can’t find him then look for Luhan, he’s probably your best bet. The bastard never forgets anything,” 

Nodding, Misook took her leave. The door to the surveillance room hissed shut as she made her way up to the dorms to go in search of the other members. She knew for a fact that Kris and Joonmyun were to be ruled out, Kris because he couldn’t remember anything from that night and Joonmyun because he’d been the one to bring her and Jongdae the drinks in the first place. She decided to take Jongdae’s advice and find Luhan, as Minseok usually didn’t spend much time in the base to begin with and she wasn’t sure if he’d be asleep in his room or elsewhere. 

When she reached the dorms she discovered that Luhan’s door was open, but he wasn’t in his room despite it being almost two o’clock in the morning. Quickly grabbing her notebook from her room she then made her way up to the kitchen, the place she’d found Luhan in numerous times before. Tonight wasn’t an exception. 

“Do you ever eat anything other than apples?” She questioned as she walked in and found Luhan sitting at the breakfast bar eating yet another apple. 

Luhan scowled at her as if she’d just suggested he make out with Jongdae, “A friend of mine got hit by an apple truck a few years ago. I’m repaying the favour by eating them. I like apples, you got a problem with that?” 

“No,” Misook sat down on the seat next to Luhan and put her notebook down, “but I need to ask you a few things,” 

“Shoot,” 

“You didn’t consume alcohol last night, right? Do you remember seeing anyone at the party acting suspiciously?” 

Luhan thought about it for a minute, “Not that I can think of. I think I spent most of the night talking to Baekhyun,” 

“Did he consume any alcohol?” 

“Not that I’m aware. He seemed fine when we left around three o ‘clock.” 

“Hmm, aside from him did you talk to anyone else?”

“Chanyeol and Tao came over a few times but I don’t think they were drinking either,” 

Misook began noting down what Luhan was saying. It was then that she remembered what he’d said to Jongdae yesterday morning.

“What did you say yesterday? Something about Jongdae having a crazy night?”  

“Oh yeah! Glad you’ve brought that up, it’s a story I love telling people,” giggled Luhan, “Jongdae had so much to drink that he ended up giving Kris a lap dance,” 

Misook snorted, “You’re joking,” 

“I wish I’d filmed it,” 

Misook was disappointed that he hadn’t. 

“Did you see anyone else consume alcohol? Or did you see anyone slip alcohol into the juice bowl?”

“No,” he answered, “Not sure why we even had a bowl of orange juice to begin with. Makes more sense to just pour it from the cartons,” 

That did seem a little odd to her, so she made a note of it. Luhan didn’t appear to know anything else, so Misook gathered up her notebook and left the kitchen to go off in search of the next person. Maybe they would have more answers. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update, wooo!


	18. Chapter 18

Chanyeol was getting ready to test a freshly polished gun when Misook walked in. On her journey from the kitchen to the armoury, she’d noted down who she knew had consumed alcohol at the party, and who she knew hadn’t based on what Jongdae and Luhan had told her. Kris, Jongdae, and Joonmyun definitely had, whereas Tao, Sehun, Luhan, Minseok, and Baekhyun had not. And judging by how accurate Chanyeol’s shots were, he hadn’t been drinking either. That or his skills were not hindered, even with a hangover.

Kyungsoo was sat on a chair in the corner, watching tentatively, analysing Chanyeol’s every shot with a look of thought across his features. His eyes seemingly followed every bullet without issue, with subtle hints of satisfaction escaping his lips when Chanyeol hit a certain spot on the paper targets across the range. 

A moment later Kyungsoo stood and walked the short distance to take up position at Chanyeol’s side, gun in hand. He released the safety, raised his gun, aimed, and fired three shots, all of them hitting the head of the target. 

“If you want them dead, shoot for the head,” Kyungsoo advised. His gun was emptied of the remaining bullets, and re-holstered. 

Chanyeol followed suit as Misook joined them. 

“Hey, I need to ask a few questions,” she began, holding up her notebook. 

“Sure,” Kyungsoo answered, “what’s up?” 

Misook asked the duo the exact same questions she’d asked Luhan not long before, and unsurprisingly, they both responded with almost identical answers. Chanyeol hadn’t had anything to drink the entire night and had left before Luhan. He remembered seeing Joonmyun approach the bowl, but he didn’t remember anyone else even going near that part of the room. 

When no new information was provided, Misook decided to call it a day and headed back upstairs to the kitchen to grab a bite to eat before returning to her room for the remainder of the day. 

 

 

Monday morning came with a clear head and the luxury of feeling completely refreshed after two nights of restless sleep. Her mind had been going over the information she’d compiled over and over, so falling asleep in the first place had been the hardest part. She didn’t want to get out of bed, but at the same time, she also felt like she could go for a run or something. Since joining the lower ranks she hadn’t visited the gym all that much, and as much as she didn’t want to think about it she wasn’t going to young forever. However, after eventually rolling out of bed and hopping in the shower, she decided to quickly grab breakfast and go and see what Joonmyun or Kris were doing seeing as she knew they’d be somewhere in the base. 

As always, food had already been prepared and set out for them. Luhan must’ve made breakfast that morning because several plates of fresh fruit lay on the breakfast bar and none of them were labelled. They were all the same, so Misook picked the nearest one and wolfed it down, eager to find Kris or Joonmyun before they disappeared. 

As luck would have it, they were both in the training room having what appeared to be a heated discussion when Misook found them. 

“-he was supposed to be here hours ago, where the hell is he?” Kris asked for what sounded like the third time, irritated.  

“It is very unlike him,” Joonmyun agreed, trying to get Kris to calm down. 

“What’s unlike who?” Misook asked as she greeted the two. 

Kris answered first, “Minseok, he’s supposed to be going out on a job with us today, but he’s nowhere to be seen,” 

Misook thought about Kris’s statement for a moment. It then occurred to her that she hadn’t seen Minseok since the party, and that was three days ago. She knew that Minseok spent a lot of time outside of the base but this was just bizarre. As far as she knew Minseok was always on time, he seemed like that kind of guy, so the fact he was a few _hours_ late was very alarming. 

“I’ve not seen him since Friday,” Misook added. “not since the party,”

“Come to think of it, neither have I,” said Joonmyun, “and I usually have coffee with him on Sundays.” 

“Would it be wise to go and look for him?” Misook suggested, to which Kris furrowed his eyebrows at her. 

“Probably, best case scenario is he’s caught up on a personal errand. Worst case scenario,” Misook gulped. Kris continued, “something has happened to him.” 

“Wouldn’t he have called if he were running errands?” 

“Yeah, I guess he would have,” Kris agreed, “Joon check upstairs, I’ll check levels two and three, Misook you check four and five. Sehun should be in the surveillance room, might be an idea to see if he’s seen anything on the cameras. “

Misook went straight to the surveillance room, deciding that the security cameras had the best chance of spotting Minseok, even if it was just to confirm where he definitely wasn’t. 

When she arrived she found the door to be open for once, and Sehun had his feet up on the desk while he watched the security cameras. Sehun greeted her with a nod as she came in and explained the situation. The cameras showed that Kris had now entered the dorms and was knocking on doors before swiping his override key for access. Her dad had once told her that leaders always had override keys, so that didn’t surprise her. Joon was in the lobby talking to Luhan. Baekhyun was in the gym working out and Misook had to draw her eyes away from the screen before she lost sight her objective. Tao and Kyungsoo were in the kitchen; it looked like Kyungsoo was teaching Tao how to cook something. Yixing was tidying up medical bottles in the infirmary, and Jongdae was in the shooting range with Chanyeol. That was odd in itself because she’d never seen Jongdae practising his aim before. The only times she’d ever seen him hold a gun was when they were out on a mission, and when he’d snatched hers from her when she first met him, and that was a while ago. 

Minseok was nowhere to be found. 

“Thanks for the help, Sehun.” 

Exiting the surveillance room she decided to venture down to the lowest level to see if she could find any clue as to Minseok’s whereabouts. The door leading to Joonmyun’s lab had not long been fixed, and Jongdae had made sure to install new security measures that made certain that nobody would be able to follow Joonmyun down there again without getting shot. A person with a gunshot wound to the shoulder would be the obvious culprit. 

However, there was something different about the corridor that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Had someone painted the walls recently? Had they given the corridor a good clean? Feeling like she was in an episode of Scooby Doo trying to find clues she began running her hands along the walls as if to find a secret passageway. She almost definitely wasn’t expecting to actually find one. 

It was very discreet but with a gentle push, she managed to shove open a hidden door, one that didn’t have an obvious door handle on the outside. She could barely see the slight indent in the door where the handle was hidden. The door revealed a flight of stairs on the other side that went down quite a way, and the lack of lighting made it hard to see anything beyond the tenth step. Misook was really glad that she wasn’t scared of the dark as she grabbed her phone from her back pocket and flicked on the torch. She also made sure she had her gun within reach just in case she needed to use it. 

It was evident that this part of the base hadn’t been used in years as she made her way down the dusty steps. Cobwebs littered the ceiling above her, but no spiders appeared to be inhabiting them. She didn’t suppose many flies ventured down there. 

When she reached the bottom of the stairs, the corridor branched off to the left. The corridor itself appeared to have lights installed, and just to test the theory she flicked the nearest light switch. Only one of the bulbs flashed on before burning out. Evidently, the bulbs down here had not been changed in a long time. 

As she made her way down the corridor she realised that there were rooms on both sides, all with old wooden doors instead of automatic like the higher levels. She automatically checked the one on her left first before moving onto the right. The first two doors were locked, but the third one contained a bunch of old tables and chairs; maybe it was an old storage room? 

It wasn’t until she reached the end of the corridor that she heard it. The slightest of whimpers coming from the last room on the left. To her dismay though, when she tried to open the door she found that it too was locked. Shaking the handle, she tested the strength of the door. The wood wouldn’t hold up very well if it was as old as she suspected. She noticed that the whimpering had stopped, making her think that the person inside thought she was someone else, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it as she took three steps back and launched herself at the door full force. Three more kicks and the door swung open.

Bringing her phone up, she was horrified at what she saw. The room looked like something out of a horror film; blood splattered across the walls, a table to the left filled with scalpels and knives of different sizes, and cowering in the very back corner of the room with his wrists tied to a water pipe above him, was Minseok. He looked completely and utterly terrified, and only when he realised it was Misook and not somebody else did he relax against the wall and let out a sigh of relief. Misook was over to him in a flash. 

He was in a right state. His t-shirt was torn in several places, and he looked like he’d been struggling so much that the rope binding his wrists to the pipe had cut into his flesh. Misook was thankful that his face looked relatively untouched aside from a couple of bruises and a bust lip. 

“Who did this to you?” It came out a little more malicious than she’d intended. 

Minseok didn’t answer her, instead choosing to close his eyes and lean his head against the wall. 

“Never mind,” she added. 

Taking her walkie-talkie from her waistband, she radioed her whereabouts to Kris and anyone else that had their radio on them - she’d learned that the members changed their phone numbers so often due to security reasons that walkie-talkies were the only way of communicating. She then set about freeing Minseok by grabbing a scalpel from the table, cutting away at the ropes as gently as she could. By the time she’d cut them and carefully pulled them away, Kris came barging into the room with Tao, Joonmyun and Luhan following close behind. 

“I completely forgot this place existed,” Joonmyun announced as Kris and Tao helped Minseok to his feet and supported him as they exited the room, heading in the direction of the infirmary immediately. 

It took Minseok a while to get up the stairs even with help. If Minseok had been locked in that room since Friday, that meant that he probably hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for a long time. If Misook hadn’t found him when she had…she couldn’t bear thinking about it. 

Yixing looked horrified when Kris and Tao unceremoniously dropped Minseok down on the nearest bed, unable to keep him up any longer. Minseok was five foot eight of pure muscle, and despite him being considerably shorter than Tao and Kris, he was more than likely a similar weight to them, and because he’d not eaten in a few days he’d become a dead weight. 

“What the hell happened?” Yixing choked as he rushed to find the medical supplies he’d need to clean Minseok up. 

“Jumped,” was all Minseok managed to get out before he drifted off into unconsciousness. 

Kris felt the hair on his neck bristle, “he was jumped.” He said bluntly. 

“What fuckwad decided to jump Kim Minseok of all people, what the fuck did he do?” Tao muttered angrily. 

“I don’t know but when I find them heads are gonna roll.” Kris spat. 

Misook took up position beside the door. She didn’t want to get in the way while Joonmyun assisted Yixing in cleaning and dressing Minseok’s wounds. They had to cut away the remainder of his shirt to get to the injuries on his torso, and it was then that Misook saw the tattoos. He had one just below his collarbone that she couldn’t quite make out, and one down his side that she also couldn’t make out due to blood. On his left shoulder was a snowflake tattoo. Misook vaguely remembered her father telling her about Minseok, but that information evaded her at that moment. She was almost certain that Kris was going to ask her to go over the CCTV again, so instead of sticking around she turned on her heel and went off back to the surveillance room. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I saw Infinity War last week.
> 
> Don't Touch Me.


	19. Ch 19

The base went into lockdown after the incident with Minseok, with nobody being allowed to enter or leave without everyone being informed of where they were going and why the members took it as an opportunity to relax. Well, the majority of them did. Tao and Sehun could be seen sparring on one of the security cameras when Misook went to the surveillance room a few days later. Her previous visit hadn’t given her any clues as to what had happened to Minseok, but that was probably due to the fact Sehun was in there rather than Jongdae. He had mentioned to her that Sehun didn’t know how to use the cameras like he did, so maybe he could find something.

Kris had told everyone to be on the lookout for anyone acting suspiciously, and to inform him if Jongin showed up, but aside from that nobody really had any instructions on what they should be doing, so when Misook found Jongdae already going through video footage she wondered if he’d been asked to, or whether he was just doing it for his own piece of mind. 

“Jongdae, I need to talk to you.” 

Jongdae peered at her over the rim of his glasses as Misook entered the room with a notebook in her hands and a pen tucked behind her ear. 

“Need to talk to me about what?” He asked curiously, turning away from his computer. Misook sat down in the seat next to him and put her notebook down, grabbing the pen. 

“Just a few questions really.” 

“If it’s about the incident with Minseok then I’ll tell you now before you start taking notes,” he gestured to the notebook, “that the cameras don’t go any further down than level five. The place you found him in is a really old part of the base so I never really considered putting cameras down there as it’s unused. That’s probably why he was taken down there,” Jongdae replied, turning to his computer. “Want me to check?”

“Yes please,”

Jongdae began typing away. Within seconds he had the CCTV up from the previous week all the way up to the present day, ready to show Misook what she wanted to see. He pulled up the video feed for each day and it wasn’t long before the two of them found the one they were looking for. 

“Bingo,” Misook said as she leaned closer to Jongdae to watch the tape of Minseok having a bag thrown over his head and being dragged down to the unused level of the base. From the CCTV, it was likely that she’d be able to inform Kris of who was to blame for Minseok’s abduction. 

“This what you’re looking for, sweetheart?” He smiled, glancing to the side to look at the girl. “I’m good, aren’t I?” 

“This is exactly what I’m looking for, but I thought you said cameras don’t go down that far?”

“They don’t,” Jongdae began. “But I decided to install one in that location a couple of weeks ago just in case. After the flood, I thought it made sense.” 

“Jongdae, I don’t know how to thank you.”

“You could give me a kiss?” He smirked. 

Misook snorted, “Yeah, not gonna happen. Do you have any more leads on who attacked Joon?” 

He quickly brushed off his original question and nodded in response to hers, “it’s definitely someone in the base. None of the cameras in the lobby or outside the building have flagged up anything suspicious, so it has to be someone who is working in the base.”

She pursed her lips and made a few notes as he continued.

“Sector E we can rule out. Everyone was accounted for.”  

“So if it’s not one of us, and it’s not an outsider, then who is it? You said that nobody was caught on the cameras leading to Joon’s lab, right? I’ve been thinking about that and I was wondering where you were when it happened?” 

Jongdae was taken aback by her question - or accusation, whatever you want to call it. His mouth opened but then closed again when no words came out, and for a short moment Misook thought she’d caught him out. That is until he clicked a button and the feed from the surveillance room came up. As she’d first suspected, there he was, sitting at the desk, as usual, going through footage. And a few moments later Misook saw herself come running to tell him to switch the water off. He couldn’t have been responsible. 

“I was in the surveillance room the entire time, sweetheart.” He said softly, but smugly. 

Misook pursed her lips. As Jongdae had said, everyone in Sector E was accounted for at the time of the attack, which meant that it had to be someone from a different section. But something didn’t add up. 

“Who knows how to access the cameras besides you? You said Sehun knows the basics but isn’t even close to being as skilled as you, right? Is there anyone else who operates in the base that would know how to delete or change footage?”  

“I shouldn’t be telling you this,” he said quietly, “but there is one person in this base who knows more than I do. He doesn’t spend much time in the base, but when he’s here everyone seems to be on edge. He seems to know everything about everyone. It’s weird.” 

She was slightly unnerved by that statement. Jongdae was supposed to be the one to know everything, to know where everything and everyone were at all times, so hearing that there could potentially be someone who knows more than him was at the very least unsettling. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't updated since before Infinity War came out. I think that film killed my writing ability!


	20. Chapter 20

Misook was awoken in the middle of the night by a hand being clamped over her mouth and her beside light being turned on. She didn’t scream, but she did throw a ‘you better explain yourself’ look at Jongin as he stared at her.

“Jongin! What are you doing here? Where the hell have you been?” She hissed quietly as he removed his hand and took a step back. 

“I need you to do me a favour,” he answered urgently. “I know you’ll listen to my story, and I know Kris will listen to you, so I’ll tell you everything as long as you promise to get Kris off my back.” 

Misook wasn’t aware of what time it was nor how long Jongin had been in her room before she’d woken up, but it was clear that she wasn’t going to get back to sleep any time soon. Sitting herself up she took a breath. 

“Jongin, it’s the middle of the night.” She muttered. Keeping Kris off his back would take a lot of effort. Effort she wasn’t sure she had at this hour. 

He groaned, rubbing his head. “Yes, I know it’s the middle of the night, but I couldn’t sneak back in during the day without being seen. Chen has cameras everywhere.” 

“Chen?” 

“Jongdae,” he corrected.

“You know his cameras work at night, right?” 

Misook wanted to laugh at the colour draining from Jongin’s face, but before she got the chance to there was a quiet knock on the door. Both pairs of eyes shot to the door as the sound of someone entering the override code drew their attention. Speak of the devil, Jongdae waltzed in like it was his own room and didn’t even look surprised when he laid eyes on Jongin. 

“You know sneaking in through the emergency exit is both stupid and risky, Jongin.” Said Jongdae. “But what surprises me more is that you know where it is.” 

The room fell into silence as the two boys stared at each other. Misook flicked her eyes from one to the other, waiting for one of them to speak, but when neither did she rolled out of bed and paced to the bathroom. 

She decided that letting the boys talk it out without her within earshot was a better idea than them trying to talk in code, so she remained in the bathroom, eyes falling shut every now and then until one of them knocked on the door a while later. 

“I’ve told Jongin to go back to his room. You might wanna go talk to Kris before he finds out he’s here, no doubt he’ll be in a sour mood about it come morning and I think we’d both prefer it if he wasn’t stomping around the base for the foreseeable future.” 

“What makes you think he’s gonna be in a better mood if I speak to him?” Misook wasn’t entirely sure what superpowers the boy thought she had but she’d sure like to know what he’d been taking for him to come to that conclusion. 

“Something tells me you’re his voice of reason, Sweetheart.” 

Misook wrinkled her nose at him, “Highly doubt that.” 

 

 

Jongdae had returned to whatever he was doing before he’d shown up at her door before Misook decided it was time to alert Kris of Jongin’s presence. Jongdae had relayed what Jongin had told him, and she’d gone over it in her head a few times to make sure she had all the specific details and what exactly she was going to tell Kris, but even that hadn’t convinced her that he was going to take it very badly. 

Taking a breath she knocked on Kris’s door three times. Kris answered the door in no time at all, as if he’d been awake for a while and was waiting for her. The only indications that he’d been asleep were his oversized t-shirt and his messy hair, other than that he could’ve walked straight out of an important business meeting with how alert he was. 

“You might wanna sit down,” Misook said as he let her in. 

Kris closed the door and went to sit beside her on the bed. He had a look of curiosity spread across his features, but Misook could sense that it went deeper than that, and something told her that what she was about to tell him was somehow old news. 

“Jongin is—“ 

“Back? I know.” He cut her off. 

She raised an eyebrow. “And you’re okay with that?”

“I figured he had a good enough reason for disappearing, no need to take it further.” He answered in a casual tone. 

Misook didn’t know how to respond. It definitely wasn’t the reaction she was expecting, so much so she had to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. 

“Okay…” she eyed him warily. “Is that all you’re gonna say? Can I go back to bed?” 

She didn’t even make it back to her own room. 

 

 

Misook slept in a lot later than she’d planned to, not fully rising until way past midday and only when she was woken up by someone knocking on the door to her — wait no, Kris’s — bedroom. Kris wasn’t in the room when she slipped out from under the covers — he must’ve tucked her in during the night — and paced towards the door to let whoever it was in. Jongdae had a beaming smile on his face when he came into view with a mug of coffee in one hand and a stack of pancakes in the other. 

“Morning, Sunshine,” he greeted as he invited himself in. “Good talk with Kris?” 

“A lot less talking than expected,” she answered, “he said everything was fine, and then wrapped his arms around me so I couldn’t leave.” 

Jongdae didn’t appear even slightly interested in that piece of information, causing Misook wonder if he had something to do with it, however, he soon changed the subject. 

“I think I’ve figured out who spiked our drinks the other night.” He announced, gaining Misook’s full attention. 

“Go on.” 

Jongdae - “So everyone in Sector E was accounted for. We’ve ruled all of them out. So remember when I told you about the guy who’s supposedly smarter than me? I believe it’s him. He was definitely at the party that night.” 

Misook - “Okay. So if it is him we have to figure out a reason why he did it.” 

Jongdae - “I have a few ideas, but I can’t discuss them here. Or now. At least not until I’m certain. Bye!” 

 

 

Jongdae came to collect Misook from her room just before nightfall, telling her to pack a small bag and wrap up warm, as where they’d be going would be rather chilly. She’d learned over the few weeks she’d been there to not ask too many questions when it came to Jongdae, so she did as he said and soon enough she was being bundled into a fancy looking car and being driven halfway across town. 

The drive only lasted about half an hour. Half an hour of which was passed in complete silence. Again, Misook decided not to ask questions until they got to where they were going. 

They came to a stop down a narrow alleyway with tall buildings rising up on either side. At first, Misook thought they’d be heading into one of them, but then Jongdae grabbed his backpack from the boot of the car and started walking towards the entrance of the alleyway, away from the doors of the buildings. 

Misook obediently followed close behind as Jongdae took them across the way and into what appeared to be woodlands. She wasn’t sure how she’d missed the massive forest plonked right in the middle of the city but then again she’d never really been to this part of town. All the buildings looked incredibly rundown as if they were all due for demolition sometime soon. 

They soon broke through the tree line, and a small grey, buildings that looked somewhat like an old farmhouse came into view. Surrounded by overground shrubbery and cracked paving stones, it looked like it hadn’t been entered in decades. Misook was sceptical about entering the building taking into account it’s dilapidated state, but Jongdae didn’t seem in the least bit worried about it so she followed behind him without a moments thought. 

Jongdae took them to the very top of the building, into the attic. He waited for Misook to pull herself up into the room before closing the hatch door and emptying the contents of his rucksack onto the floor. 

“Let me guess, this is a safe house.” 

“Well, you’re not wrong.” He said, “It used to be a safe house, many years ago.” 

“So now it isn’t a safe house? It’s just a random, derelict building that looks like it could crumble at any moment?” 

“It’s safe, sweetheart. I could do a back tuck and wouldn’t even shift dust.” 

“It all makes sense now. Those days I don’t see you when you leave the base, you’re coming here. But how did you find this place?” 

“Didn’t I tell you it was a safe house many years ago?” 

“But why would the mafia need—“ Then it hit her like a tonne of bricks. “Unless this place was used by you. And only you. Before you joined the mafia.” 

“Nailed it!”

“What happened? You’ve never given anything away as to who you were before you joined the mafia.”

“I never tell anyone about my past, and I’d like to keep it that way. But what I will say, is I used to be in a gang, and we had a disagreement that had me end up in hot water, and from there I joined the mafia. Enough about me though, it’s safe enough here for me to tell you what I know about our inconvenience.” 

“Hit me.” 

“I believe it’s this guy.” Jongdae turns his computer around to show Misook a picture of a man dressed in casual clothes — very similar to the clothes Jongin often wore — with short, dark brown hair and a sharp jawline. Misook recognised him immediately. 

“That’s Minjae.” 

“You know him?” 

“He’s my idiot older brother.” 

“You’re related to Minjae?” 

“Yeah.” 

“You are nothing alike,” he looked surprised. “What’s the age gap?” 

“Five years, but he acts like he’s older.” 

That much was true. When her dad wasn’t around and Minjae was, he acted like the man of the house. It drove both Misook and her sister nuts. 

“He’s also a huge jackass,” Jongdae muttered. “No offence.” 

“None taken. He—“

Misook was cut off by Jongdae quickly raising his hand to silence her. The room went eerily quiet, save for the very faint footsteps that only the trained ear would pick up. Misook held her breath as Jongdae quickly but silently gathered up his belongings and shoved them back in his backpack. 

Jongdae soundlessly told Misook to follow him quickly and closely, which she did without hesitation. He obviously knew the ins and outs of the building because before long they were climbing into a hole in the wall and sliding down the side of the building hidden from view. 

Misook brought her hand up to cover her eyes as the slide kicked up dust. When they reached the bottom, Jongdae grabbed her wrist and dragged Misook down a corridor just as more people — presumably police — began to arrive. 

They came to a halt in front of a pile of broken bricks, the exit was in clear view just on the other side. 

“Come on.” Misook began climbing over the pile of bricks, being mindful of where she was stepping. 

Jongdae followed suit, dislodging a few of the bricks as he made it to the other side, but just as Misook began to walk off, the floor gave way under Jongdae’s feet. He let out a yelp as his right foot became trapped between the rotten floorboards. 

“Shit.” He cried out as he tried to pull himself free. 

“Jongdae!” Misook came running back. 

No matter how hard he tried his foot was just not giving way, so he quickly removed his backpack and thrust it at Misook. 

“Go! Get back to the van and drive back to the base! The keys are in the front pocket.” 

“But Jongdae—“

“Go! Now!” 

Without arguing further, Misook turned and made for the exit, leaving Jongdae behind. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure how long it had been since I'd last updated, but seen as I haven't updated this since JULY I guess I needed to update it to let you all know I am still writing it XD it's just taking slightly more time than expected. Truth be told, I am slightly stuck and I'm working out a few kinks. I know how the story ends, and we aren't that far away from that, but let's just say I've sort of...turned the story in a new direction.

**Author's Note:**

> I am using British English, so if there are any words or phrases that you're confused about don't hesitate to ask!


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